Georgia launches state-run Affordable Care Act website

ATLANTA — Starting Monday, 1.3 million Georgians who bought health care through the Affordable Care Act can begin looking at plans through Georgia Access, the state’s new marketplace exchange.

Open enrollment for Georgia Access begins Friday. For the first time since the ACA launched, Georgians will be blocked from using the federal website for enrolling in health insurance.

“This milestone is the result of the extraordinary work our office has conducted over the past three years to move Georgia away from reliance on the federal government for health coverage,” said Georgia Insurance and Fire Safety Commissioner John King in a press release.

Former President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law in 2010, which initiated federally subsidized health insurance plans known as “Obamacare.” Over a dozen states have set up their own exchanges to run the ACA’s subsidy program, and Georgia received federal approval in August to open its own marketplace after years of negotiation.

Georgia’s Republican Gov. Brian Kemp said launching a state-based insurance exchange was one of his top priorities after he was elected in 2019.

“A state-based exchange will not only make the process for Georgians getting covered easier, but will also increase their coverage options and our ability to promote quality and affordable health plans,” Kemp said in a press release.

The Georgia Access website should allow Georgians to find health care policies that are both affordable and cover basic needs, just like the ACA’s website. But some worry that private businesses will prioritize their own profits instead of providing people with good coverage, and those looking to profit off of user fees may push for more enrollees than they did in the federal system.

The state is already making hundreds of millions of dollars from enrollment fees on the site, which previously fed into the federal system.

Unlike other state-based exchanges, the Georgia Access website emphasizes links that direct people to private web brokers and insurance agents. State officials say many Georgians were already using private options, and they will revoke an agents’ license if they aren’t acting in the consumers’ best interest.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that two of the private web brokers Georgia is working with, Benefitalign and Inshura, were temporarily banned from the ACA website after federal inquiries and a civil lawsuit found evidence of alleged fraud.

Still, some private web brokers such as HealthSherpa.com, which 550,000 ACA policy holders in Georgia used to enroll, received positive reviews.

Government-funded navigators will also be available to help Georgia users understand their options, just as they did with the federal website. Navigators may suggest people enroll in a Medicaid plan, which provides free government health care for some low-income adults.

State officials said they are working to facilitate a smooth enrollment process for consumers and prevent a repeat of the ACA’s chaotic launch over a decade ago.

“Anytime you have a big launch like this, you’re going to have some unexpected situations arise,” the executive director of Georgia Access Cheryl Gardner said, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “But we think what we don’t have is a failure to imagine. We have imagined just about anything that can come up, and we are prepared to deal with it.”