Access to affordable health care. Salary raises for teachers. Workforce housing.
Those are the needs that readers of The Current want Georgia’s lawmakers to put at the top of their to-do lists as work gets underway at the state capitol in Atlanta in the latest session of the Georgia General Assembly, according to a survey.
Before we look at the survey’s results in the first of two stories, first a bit on methodology: Readers were offered a list of 12 possible legislative priorities, drawn mainly from legislative agendas prepared by local lawmakers and municipal officials, as well as business groups and other non-governmental organizations.
On a scale of one-to-seven, with seven being a top concern and one being “not a big deal now,” readers were asked to rate the each of the possible priorities, which ranged from “workforce housing support” and “prosecution oversight” to “legalized gambling” and “elimination of runoff voting.” The form also provided plenty of space to enter priorities that weren’t listed.
The response was astonishing. More than 200 of responded to the survey online, Instagram and by text on the texting platform GroundSource. Readers were not required to leave a name, but they could only fill out form once.
Here’s what readers said: Mental health care topped the list, with nearly half of the survey respondents — 49% — ranking it their top priority, followed by rural health care (45.7%) and raises for teachers (41.4%), workforce housing (29.1%) and standards for rental property (24.9%).
Wrote one reader on the lack of mental health professionals and funding for diagnosis and treatment, especially for those eligible for Medicaid, the joint federal and state program that provides health coverage for some people with limited income and resources.
“Mental health is a huge issue. We run a clinical psychology practice, and most aren’t taking Medicaid for testing anymore, as the payout is ludicrous, and they make you jump through hoops with authorizations. Most schools don’t have the psychologists to do the testing. It’s a crisis about to blow up.”
Another reader of The Current said drug prices were forcing those on Medicare, the federal health insurance program for anyone age 65 and older, into a dreadful predicament:
“I’m a healthcare provider and my Medicare patients have to pay $400-500 in January for their inhalers or other medications, which they can’t afford . . . My mother takes [the anticoagulant medication] Eliquis [for which] my brother and I just paid $538. If not for us, she absolutely could not afford that. I’m sure there are hundreds of thousands of Medicare patients who can’t get life-saving medications [and] have to choose between food and medicine.”
For those survey respondents, right behind improving health care in Coastal Georgia in their list of priorities are two acute needs created by the economic boom rippling across the region: a workforce educated by adequately paid teachers with access to affordable housing.
One reader wrote:
“Someone needs to save Georgia’s kids from generational education disaster.”
Noted another:
“I’m all for investment in the community, but outside developers prioritizing profit over our people in a way that makes it nearly impossible for everyday folks to live where they work is crazy — not to mention driving out families who have called that same place home for generations. Nuts.”
Notably, what galvanized respondents to The Current’s survey most weren’t the needs they most preferred lawmakers work on in Atlanta.
What moved the most respondents most intensely instead were measures they regarded as the least pressing, underscoring the disconnect that many voters see between their priorities and those of Georgia legislators and government officials.
The readers’ list of low priorities is topped by legalizing gambling (62.7%), firearms training for teachers (55.7%) and school vouchers (38%) — all issues that have received wide attention from either Gov. Brian Kemp, legislative leaders, or both, in the opening days of the legislative session.
The Tide brings news and observations from The Current’s staff.
