Stephanie Stuckey Benfeld

REP. STEPHANIE STUCKEY BENFIELD'S

LEGISLATIVE REPORT

Week of January 15 - 19, 2007

Stephanie

WEEKLY LEGISLATIVE REPORT - January 19, 2007

By Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield

Upcoming Community Events:

City of Decatur Schools Meeting :   On Monday, January 22 from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. at the Central Office at Westchester, Superintendent Phyllis Edwards and members of the Decatur Board of Education invite parents, students and employees to an important public discussion of current legislative issues that have the potential to significantly impact the Decatur school system.   Parking is limited.   Overflow parking is available at Sunrise Assisted Living on the corner of Clairemont and Scott Boulevard.

Medicaid managed care plan hurting some hospitals        

There is a growing concern across the state over problems that many of Georgia's hospitals are having as a result of last year's change to a managed-care approach for Medicaid.

According to top health care leaders, some smaller hospitals are reconsidering their participation the program or facing the possibility of having to shut down because of delays, shortages or denial of reimbursement payments from Medicaid, as well as additional paperwork. These problems have been reported to legislators and in a recent Atlanta Business Chronicle article.

The state Department of Community Health contracted with three managed-care organizations to take over the 1 million Georgians who are on Medicaid and PeachCare for Kids. The program was implemented in several stages last year. But a stricter process for reimbursing hospitals for emergency care under the new system has escalated the financial woes of a number of hospitals.

It is time for legislators and state DCH officials to work together toward a swift, effective solution to this very critical situation.

One of the most encouraging developments to take place since the beginning of the 2007 session of the Georgia General Assembly has been the announcement by new Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle that he will not bring a proposed constitutional amendment that would impose controversial voter identification restrictions to the floor of the state Senate for a vote.

During the previous two legislative sessions, bills were passed and signed into law by the governor that would have required eligible Georgia voters to present government-issued photo identification when they go to the polls to cast their ballots. For most citizens, of course, this is not a problem. But for thousands of elderly and low-income Georgians who do not hold driver's licenses, this new restriction would have been an unnecessary impediment to their exercising their right to vote.

In addition, the new law would have been ineffective at addressing concerns over voter fraud, since the vast majority of fraud incidents have been associated with absentee voting, which this law did not address. The picture ID restriction is simply a blatant attempt to make it more difficult for certain, otherwise eligible, voters from going to the polls.

Several judges in state and federal courts agreed that this new law was unconstitutional, and the state was prohibited from enforcing it during the 2006 election cycle. Now, some of its supporters have proposed changing the state Constitution in order to make it constitutional impose this voting restriction.

Lt. Gov. Cagle has wisely determined the proposal has no chance of receiving the two-thirds majority approval that a constitutional amendment requires, and he sees no value in taking up the legislature's time with another divisive debate over a "dead horse." Hopefully the leadership in the House of Representatives will follow the lieutenant governor's example of exercising common sense on this issue.

On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, state government department heads addressed a joint session of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees to make their requests for funding in the annual state budget for fiscal year 2008, which begins July 1, 2007. Here is a breakdown of the record $20.2 billion budget proposed by Governor Perdue in some of the major areas of state government:

The state government collects revenue to pay for these programs from the following sources:

Lawmakers will return to the Capitol for Day 5 of the 40-day session on Monday, Jan. 22. Please contact me whenever I can be of service.

•  Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield (D-Atlanta) represents the 85 th District (DeKalb County) in the Georgia House of Representatives. Contact her at 512 Coverdell Office Building, Atlanta, GA   30334; by phone at 404-656-7859 or by e-mail at stuckey@mindspring.com.

Please feel free to contact Rep. Benfield with any questions or comments at stuckey@mindspring.com or (404) 656 0245 (Capitol Office) or (404) 377 7014 (Home).

 

 

 

Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield (D-Atlanta) represents the 85 th District (DeKalb County) in the Georgia House of Representatives. Contact her at 512 Coverdell Office Building, Atlanta, GA 30334; by phone at 404-656-7859 or by e-mail at stuckey@mindspring.com.

 

 




Friends & Neighbors of Stephanie Stuckey Benfield
940 Artwood Road, NE
Atlanta, GA 30307
(404) 377-7014

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