Grady Health's Loke Predicts Georgia Medicaid Expansion in 2027
Speaking to Georgia health advocates days after Keisha Lance Bottoms won the governor's race, Ryan Loke, senior vice president and chief health policy officer at Grady Health System and a former health policy adviser to Gov. Brian Kemp who helped design the Georgia Pathways to Coverage program, said he is confident the General Assembly will expand Medicaid in its 2027 session regardless of chamber makeup. Democrats won the governor's office and the state House, but Republicans retained the state Senate. Loke cautioned that expansion's impact depends heavily on whether federal work requirements and funding cuts under the One Big Beautiful Bill law remain in effect, and warned that Georgia's outdated Medicaid eligibility system would need state investment to handle an expanded caseload. A Center on Budget and Policy Priorities study using 2024 data estimated 347,000 uninsured Georgians could be eligible under full expansion, not counting those excluded by work requirements or enrollment barriers. Sen. Raphael Warnock has joined others pushing to delay the federal work-reporting requirements by two years.