ATLANTA– A federal judge ruled that the Biden administration followed the law when it refused to grant an extension to Georgia’s Year-Old Medicaid Planthe only one in the country that has a work requirement for recipients of the government-funded health insurance for low-income people.
The state failed to comply with federal rules for an extension, legally denying the Biden administration a request to extend the Georgia Pathways to Coverage program’s end date from September 2025 to 2028, U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood ruled Monday.
A spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office referred the comments to the governor’s office, which did not immediately respond to an email sent Tuesday.
Georgia Pathways requires all recipients to demonstrate that they have completed at least 80 hours of work, volunteer work, education or vocational rehabilitation each month. It also limits coverage to able-bodied adults who earn no more than the federal poverty level, which is $15,060 for a single person and $31,200 for a family of four.
The Biden administration repealed the work requirement in 2021, but Wood later reinstated it in response to a state lawsuit. Georgia sued the administration again in February, arguing that the decision to repeal the work requirement and another aspect of Pathways delayed the program’s implementation. That shortened the program’s originally approved five-year term to just over two years.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services twice denied the request to renew Pathways, saying the state had failed to meet the requirements for a renewal request, including a public notice and comment period. Georgia argued that it wanted to change the program, so those requirements should not apply.
In her latest ruling, Wood said the state had indeed filed an extension request. She agreed that the Biden administration’s decision to rescind parts of Pathways had delayed its implementation, but she said a “prior bad act” did not allow the state to “now circumvent the rules and regulations that govern extensions of time.”
“If Georgia wishes to extend the program beyond the September 30, 2025, deadline, it must follow the rules for obtaining an extension,” she wrote.
Pathways has had a slow start. Georgia officials expected it would offer health insurance to 25,000 low-income residents, or perhaps tens of thousands more. But enrollment stood at just over 4,300 as of last month.
Critics say the work requirement is too onerous. Supporters say Pathways needs more time.
