Georgia's Healthcare System

Florida Atlantic University

HSA 6103-002

INTRODUCTION TO HEALTH CARE SYSTEMS

Fall 2015

College of Business - Office Depot Center Executive Education Boca 101

Dr. Lawrence J. Newmann, DPM

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HEALTH CARE SYSTEM IN GEORGIA

Executive MBA Student

September 2015

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. Named after King George II of Great Britain, Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788. It declared its secession from the Union on January 19, 1861, and was one of the original seven Confederate states. Georgia is the 24th largest and the 8th most populous of the 50 United States. Many Georgia's counties ranked among the nation's 100 fastest-growing, second only to Texas. Georgia is known as the Peach State and the Empire State of the South. Atlanta is the state's capital and its most populous city.

A large and diverse state such as Georgia, with nearly nine million residents, faces complex health challenges. The state has 151 general hospitals, over 15,000 doctors and almost 6,000 dentists. The majority of Georgians—about 55 percent of the state’s population, or 5.2 million people— obtain health insurance through an employer sponsored plan. About 2.2 million have some form of public coverage (such as Medicare, Medicaid, and Peach Care), just over 340,000 Georgians purchase private health insurance on the individual market, and more than 1.6 million are uninsured. The majority of nonelderly uninsured Georgians are in working families:  four fifths of the uninsured are in families with at least one worker, and nearly 70 percent are in families with at least one full-time worker. Within Georgia, uninsurance rates vary between different regions of the state, from a low of 12 percent uninsured in the East Metro Public Health District to a high of 24 percent uninsured in the Clayton Public Health District. The South Central and Southeast Public Health Districts also feature high levels of uninsurance (22 percent in each of these districts).

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) went into full effect on January 1, 2014, ushering in health insurance reforms and new health coverage options in Georgia and elsewhere across the country. Thousands of Georgians have enrolled in health coverage through the new Health Insurance Marketplace, but Georgia has not implemented the Medicaid expansion, and many low-income adults in the state will likely remain uninsured. This report provides an overview of the population health, health coverage, and health care delivery system in Georgia in the era of health reform.

The percentage of people in Georgia who lack health insurance fell in 2014, mirroring a national trend linked to new coverage from the Affordable Care Act, the U.S. But Georgia’s percentage of people without coverage last year was the fourth-highest in the nation, trailing only Texas, Alaska and Florida.

In addition to health insurance, features of the health care delivery system such as the number and geographic distribution of primary care providers, care coordination and medical homes, and the availability of trauma and acute care services impact the utilization of necessary medical services.

Access to health care can be measured through a range of indicators.  Structural indicators, such as the number of providers in a given area, supply information about the potential for a given population to access health care services. Realized access indicators, such as the percentage of Georgians who receive recommended cancer screenings, signify whether essential health care services are being obtained. Indicators that supply more detailed information about interaction with the health care system, such as avoidable hospitalizations, can demonstrate an unmet need or a lack of access.  

Demographics

Georgia, located in the southern region of the United States, is home to over 9.6 million people, making it the ninth most populous state in the U.S. and the third most populous state in the South, after Texas and Florida. With nearly 58,000 square miles, Georgia is the 30th largest state. Much of Georgia is rural, including 37 of the state’s 159 counties that are part of the Appalachian region. However, a majority of the state’s population (87%) lives in metropolitan areas. Georgia’s three most populous counties (Fulton, Gwinett, and Cobb) account for over one-quarter (26%) of the state population.