Cynthia
Johnson
Igniting Hope for
Georgia State House District 148
Georgia State House District 148
HEALTHCARE & SENIOR WELLNESS: AFFORDABLE & ACCESSIBLE
Nobody Should Have to Choose Between a Prescription and the Rent
My mother is 83 years old. She has worked her entire life, raised a family, and given back to this community in ways too numerous to count. And like too many seniors in HD-148, she still has to weigh what she can afford to treat against what she simply has to live with. That is a moral failure — not a budgetary inevitability. And it is one I intend to name loudly from the floor of the State House.
Healthcare in our district is not just inadequate. It is in crisis — and the decisions being made right now in Atlanta and Washington are making it worse.
How Did We Get Here?
Georgia's rural healthcare system is suffering from a structural policy failure that has been allowed to compound for fifteen years. Our rural hospitals are not failing because they are poorly managed. They are failing because they are providing care to patients who cannot pay — and those patients cannot pay because they have no insurance.
Here is the mechanism: Georgia has a coverage gap that leaves 175,000 working Georgians — people who earn too much for Medicaid but not enough for marketplace insurance — with no coverage option at all. When those 175,000 people get sick, they end up in the emergency room. The hospital absorbs that cost with no reimbursement. Multiply that across thousands of visits per year at a facility like Crisp Regional, and you have the mechanism by which a viable community hospital becomes a financially endangered one.
Georgia has had the federal funding available to close that gap since 2010. For over a decade, our state legislature has chosen to leave hundreds of millions of dollars in available federal healthcare money unclaimed rather than extend coverage to working families. That is not fiscal conservatism. That is a policy choice — and our community has been paying for it ever since.
There are 30 rural hospitals in Georgia. Eighteen are at financial risk of closure.
The Threat Is Getting Worse
The reconciliation law signed on July 4, 2025 — known as the "Big Beautiful Bill" — is projected to cost Georgia $5.4 billion in Medicaid funding over the next decade. Researchers have already identified Flint River Community Hospital in Montezuma — just miles from our district — as one of four Georgia rural hospitals at specific risk of closure under those cuts.
When a rural hospital closes, everything around it changes. Ambulances drive longer. Specialists don't come. Employers won't relocate to a community with no hospital. Families age in place without access to the care they need. A rural hospital is not just a medical facility — it is the healthcare infrastructure that holds a community together.
I will be a consistent and vocal opponent of those federal Medicaid cuts and will push Georgia's congressional delegation to fight for rural hospital protections in every future budget negotiation.
The Fix: SB 50, PeachCare Plus
The structural solution to our coverage gap already exists. In 2025, State Senator Carden Summers — a Republican from right here in Cordele — introduced Senate Bill 50, the PeachCare Plus Act, with bipartisan support. SB 50 uses a private insurance marketplace model to cover adults earning below 138% of the federal poverty level. It is not a government takeover of healthcare. It is the same approach that Republican-led states like Arkansas have used successfully for years — drawing on federal Medicaid matching funds that Georgia has been leaving on the table since 2010.
I will be Senator Summers' partner in the House from day one. Closing the coverage gap is the single largest cost-of-living intervention the state can make for working families in this district. An uninsured family hit with a hospitalization is not facing a healthcare cost problem — they are facing a financial catastrophe. SB 50 is the fix, and I support it fully.
The HEART Tax Credit — And What Needs to Happen Next
The Georgia HEART Rural Hospital Tax Credit works. It allows businesses and individuals to make 100% tax-credited donations to qualifying rural hospitals. It is capped at $100 million per year and is already nearly exhausted. I will advocate to raise that cap and ensure that qualifying facilities in Crisp, Pulaski, and Wilcox counties are actively and fully supported through it.
Our Seniors Deserve to Be Named Specifically
It is easy to fold senior healthcare into the general access conversation and miss the distinct severity of what seniors in this district face. A resident of Abbeville or Rochelle on a fixed income who needs a cardiologist or oncologist may be looking at a sixty-mile round trip, no reliable transportation, and a specialist copay that competes directly with their prescription costs.
Our rural counties have documented shortages of geriatric specialists that are severe and far less discussed than the general provider shortage. I will:
Environmental Health Is Healthcare
You cannot have a complete healthcare conversation in HD-148 without acknowledging that air and water quality directly affect health outcomes. Agricultural chemical runoff into groundwater is a documented health risk in South Georgia farming communities. Extreme heat mortality is rising in rural Georgia. A data center drawing on regional water resources without a completed environmental review is not just a property rights issue — it is a public health issue. I will insist that environmental health be part of the healthcare conversation at the state level, not treated as a separate and lesser concern.
What I Will Do
My mother is 83 years old. She has worked her entire life, raised a family, and given back to this community in ways too numerous to count. And like too many seniors in HD-148, she still has to weigh what she can afford to treat against what she simply has to live with. That is a moral failure — not a budgetary inevitability. And it is one I intend to name loudly from the floor of the State House.
Healthcare in our district is not just inadequate. It is in crisis — and the decisions being made right now in Atlanta and Washington are making it worse.
How Did We Get Here?
Georgia's rural healthcare system is suffering from a structural policy failure that has been allowed to compound for fifteen years. Our rural hospitals are not failing because they are poorly managed. They are failing because they are providing care to patients who cannot pay — and those patients cannot pay because they have no insurance.
Here is the mechanism: Georgia has a coverage gap that leaves 175,000 working Georgians — people who earn too much for Medicaid but not enough for marketplace insurance — with no coverage option at all. When those 175,000 people get sick, they end up in the emergency room. The hospital absorbs that cost with no reimbursement. Multiply that across thousands of visits per year at a facility like Crisp Regional, and you have the mechanism by which a viable community hospital becomes a financially endangered one.
Georgia has had the federal funding available to close that gap since 2010. For over a decade, our state legislature has chosen to leave hundreds of millions of dollars in available federal healthcare money unclaimed rather than extend coverage to working families. That is not fiscal conservatism. That is a policy choice — and our community has been paying for it ever since.
There are 30 rural hospitals in Georgia. Eighteen are at financial risk of closure.
The Threat Is Getting Worse
The reconciliation law signed on July 4, 2025 — known as the "Big Beautiful Bill" — is projected to cost Georgia $5.4 billion in Medicaid funding over the next decade. Researchers have already identified Flint River Community Hospital in Montezuma — just miles from our district — as one of four Georgia rural hospitals at specific risk of closure under those cuts.
When a rural hospital closes, everything around it changes. Ambulances drive longer. Specialists don't come. Employers won't relocate to a community with no hospital. Families age in place without access to the care they need. A rural hospital is not just a medical facility — it is the healthcare infrastructure that holds a community together.
I will be a consistent and vocal opponent of those federal Medicaid cuts and will push Georgia's congressional delegation to fight for rural hospital protections in every future budget negotiation.
The Fix: SB 50, PeachCare Plus
The structural solution to our coverage gap already exists. In 2025, State Senator Carden Summers — a Republican from right here in Cordele — introduced Senate Bill 50, the PeachCare Plus Act, with bipartisan support. SB 50 uses a private insurance marketplace model to cover adults earning below 138% of the federal poverty level. It is not a government takeover of healthcare. It is the same approach that Republican-led states like Arkansas have used successfully for years — drawing on federal Medicaid matching funds that Georgia has been leaving on the table since 2010.
I will be Senator Summers' partner in the House from day one. Closing the coverage gap is the single largest cost-of-living intervention the state can make for working families in this district. An uninsured family hit with a hospitalization is not facing a healthcare cost problem — they are facing a financial catastrophe. SB 50 is the fix, and I support it fully.
The HEART Tax Credit — And What Needs to Happen Next
The Georgia HEART Rural Hospital Tax Credit works. It allows businesses and individuals to make 100% tax-credited donations to qualifying rural hospitals. It is capped at $100 million per year and is already nearly exhausted. I will advocate to raise that cap and ensure that qualifying facilities in Crisp, Pulaski, and Wilcox counties are actively and fully supported through it.
Our Seniors Deserve to Be Named Specifically
It is easy to fold senior healthcare into the general access conversation and miss the distinct severity of what seniors in this district face. A resident of Abbeville or Rochelle on a fixed income who needs a cardiologist or oncologist may be looking at a sixty-mile round trip, no reliable transportation, and a specialist copay that competes directly with their prescription costs.
Our rural counties have documented shortages of geriatric specialists that are severe and far less discussed than the general provider shortage. I will:
- Support SB 60, which addresses prescription drug pricing practices and pharmacy benefit manager accountability — because when middlemen in the drug pricing chain are not regulated, seniors pay the price
- Push for telehealth infrastructure investment throughout the district, because for a senior without transportation, a remote appointment is not a convenience — it is the only appointment they can realistically access
- Protect insurance access for seniors and their spouses, particularly those navigating coverage transitions after a life-altering diagnosis
Environmental Health Is Healthcare
You cannot have a complete healthcare conversation in HD-148 without acknowledging that air and water quality directly affect health outcomes. Agricultural chemical runoff into groundwater is a documented health risk in South Georgia farming communities. Extreme heat mortality is rising in rural Georgia. A data center drawing on regional water resources without a completed environmental review is not just a property rights issue — it is a public health issue. I will insist that environmental health be part of the healthcare conversation at the state level, not treated as a separate and lesser concern.
What I Will Do
- Co-sponsor SB 50 (PeachCare Plus) from day one — closing the coverage gap is the most important healthcare intervention available to us
- Advocate to raise the Georgia HEART Tax Credit cap and ensure Crisp, Pulaski, and Wilcox hospitals are fully enrolled
- Oppose the Big Beautiful Bill's Medicaid cuts and push Georgia's congressional delegation to protect rural hospital funding
- Support SB 60 to bring transparency and accountability to prescription drug pricing
- Invest in telehealth infrastructure so that our seniors and working families can access care without driving an hour each way
- Insist that every major development affecting our water or air receives a public health review before it breaks ground
- Fight to keep Crisp Regional Hospital open — because when that anchor closes, the community around it changes in ways that take generations to undo
PRIVACY POLICY | TERMS & CONDITIONS
PAID FOR BY CYNTHIA JOHNSON FOR GEORGIA
P.O. Box 42 Cordele, GA 31010 | (229) 805-0094
copyright 2026 Cynthia Johnson for Georgia
PAID FOR BY CYNTHIA JOHNSON FOR GEORGIA
P.O. Box 42 Cordele, GA 31010 | (229) 805-0094
copyright 2026 Cynthia Johnson for Georgia