ATLANTA -- It is Rural Health Day at the state Capitol, an honorary occasion. But there’s a shortage of rural health care to celebrate and the problem is set to get more acute.
“Rural Georgians are more likely to be under-insured or uninsured,” Georgia Rural Health Association Executive Director Matt Caseman told the legislative Rural Caucus on Wednesday.
As baby boomers age, Georgia as a whole is getting older, increasing demand for health care. But rural populations are disproportionately poor and old compared to the rest of the state. That means when Georgia fails to push a growing amount of money into Medicaid, the health care program for poorer Americans, it’s rural Georgians who will see more doctors’ doors closed to them.
Georgia spends a combination of federal and state money on reimbursements to physicians who see Medicaid patients. But the reimbursement is never 100 percent.
Georgia cut its rate one-half of one percent last year and has not made any raise in 10 years. This gives physicians no incentive to see Medicaid recipients.
Gov. Nathan Deal’s draft budget for the year beginning this July is silent on those reimbursement rates.
But when a single general practitioner or specialist is the only one for many miles, and loses money on Medicaid, that’s a problem.
By Caseman’s count, 65 Georgia counties have no practicing pediatrician; 68 have no obstetrician/gynecologist.
Rural general practitioners are in such short supply that cities and counties often try to woo them with tax breaks, facilities or other perks.
Statewide, Caseman calculates that as many as one-third of general practitioners will retire in the next decade.
In Peach and Monroe counties, the hospitals can get reimbursed for Medicaid at a higher rate under a federal program that aims to keep the most isolated hospitals open.
They might not next year. President Barack Obama’s proposed budget for the federal fiscal year beginning in October would limit the higher rate to hospitals that are more than 35 miles from another.
Warner Robins and its hospital are that close to Byron.
Back in Georgia, Deal’s draft budget for PeachCare, the state program for poor childrens’ health care, includes an additional $4.6 million for reimbursements.
The state House and Senate will settle on a budget before their session ends this year, sometime in April.
