This article was prepared for the local propublica reporting network in partnership with Current. Sign up for sending To get such stories as soon as they are published.
Last summer, when a political debate spun in the future of Georgia’s experiment demanding Medicaid’s work, Governor Brian Kemp held a press conference to open a three-minute views involving a mechanic running on classic cars.
The 54-year-old Rural Jefferson resident Luke Siborn became the actual face of Georgia before the coverage, KEMP insurance program for impoverished Georgians. In a soft southern train, SeaBorn explained how insurance improved his life when he was enrolled: “Pathways is a great program that offers health insurance to low-income experts like me.”
Kemp praises the ways as an innovative way to reduce the high level of insurance adults that overcome public expenses, holding the program as an example to other republican states seeking to establish work requirements for Medicaid.
But nine months after the release of the SEABORN video, his opinion has fallen. His benefits were abolished – he said twice from the bureaucratic red tape.
“I used to think about the ways about the blessing,” said the Current and Propublica recently. “I finished it now.”
SEABORN’s experience rather than a solid character of success spends millions of dollars on the Burnish Pathways brand. Earlier current and propublica reported that many of the approximately 250,000 low -income adults may potentially right to the health insurance program fight for enrollment or maintenance coverage.
The path policy was not in the head of the SEABORN when he received a phone call last summer from the Pathways Customer Customers. One of the first Georgians enrolled in the program in 2023, Seaborn wrote a letter thanked his provider for covering the back pain. Executive power with Caring for the AMERIGROUP community I wanted to find out: Does he accept in the advertising video on the way?
SEABORN, a supporter of the governor, said “yes” without hesitation. Soon the press secretary of Kempa, Garrison Douglas, arrived in his car repair shuttle, located a few miles from his hometown of the governor, and spent hours in a picture in the garage filled with ancient Ford and Chevy trucks and a plaque.
A trained SEABORN engineer threw his corporate job to accept his dream of restoring classic cars. But the realities to be the owner of a small business have complicated this path, SEABORN said, especially when it came to the cost of health insurance for yourself and your son. The paths made the way easier, he said.
SEABORN said he was surprised when the governor called him named after a few weeks at a press conference during which his reviews were released. He did not expect that he would become the only face of the ways.
By November, however, SEABORN faced some problems that, according to other Georgians, thwarted their opinions about the ways. SEABORN said he entered the Internet system as needed. But his benefits were abolished after he could not fill the new form he said that the state added without a proper warning. SEABORN said the form requested the same information he presented every month, only in another format. The Medicaid State Agency did not answer questions about SEABORN or new form.
He said he called the same head of insurance who asked him to take part in the response. She told him that on this day she would dine with one of Kemp’s assistants and promised to help, he recalled. Within 24 hours, according to SEABORN, its benefits were resumed, and a representative of the Georgian family and children department, who managed federal programs, called for forgiveness.
Douglas said the governor’s office “did not participate in the case of Mr. Sibor.” The insurance company did not respond to comment requests.
Posts working on the way must submit documents every month, proving that they fulfilled the requirements they needed to cover: 80 hours of work, study or volunteering. But the state states that it does not check the information on a monthly basis – only during enrollment and annual updating.
SEABORN said that after the restoration of his coverage, his insurance company told him that he would not serve his work hours more every month; The next time he will need to submit such documentation during the annual rethinking. However, SEABORN said he signed up for text and electronic messages from the Pathways program so that he would not be caught when the requirements changed again.
However, technical failures and even more red tape made it lose its coating again. It stopped receiving texts from the Pathways in February. When he entered the digital platform in early March to make sure that everything is fine, the message informed him that his benefits would be stopped on April 1. Reason: He missed an annual income report. He said the surprise demand jumped on the digital platform, although its lighting was not for extending.
“My head exploded,” he said. “I didn’t get a text or e -mail. I was doing what was supposed to, but it was not good enough.”
SEABORN said he went forward and provided information, though it was too late. He tried to call his insurance again to explain – and help. He also turned to the family and children. However, this time he said that no one called him back.
In April, Seaborn paid out of his son’s prescription medicine, an extra $ 40, which he said it is difficult to allow him.
Ellen Brown, a press -secretary of the Georgian family and children, will not say why the SEABORN benefits were stopped.
“We regret that this happened and consider how we can better serve our customers and solve gaps in communication in the future,” Brown said in a written statement on Friday. “Every Georgian looking for our services is important and we take these issues very seriously.”
Meanwhile, SEABORN received a phone call that day from the same division representatives for family and children who apologized to him after it started in the fall last fall. He said she told him that he was coming back. A spokesman did not respond to a request for the current and propublica.
On Monday night, SEABORN received a text message to warn it about the notification on the Pathways digital platform. He entered the system: the report confirmed that he was rethinking, changing the happiness he attributed to the current and projected issues by state officials about his difficult situation because he had already refused to seek help from people.
“I am so disappointed with all this journey,” Siborn said. “I am grateful for the lighting. But I don’t understand that they leave me like a mushroom in the dark and not feed me anything, no information, more than a month.”
