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Health care advocates are eager to see Medicaid expansion get off the ground in 2016, sometime after Gov. elect John Bel Edwards' Jan. 11 inauguration. The new governor has said Medicaid expansion -- which would provide health insurance for more than 250,000 uninsured working poor -- is "among the highest priorities" of his new administration. But there also are several challenges Edwards' new administration could face as the expanded program takes off. (Litten, 12/23)

In a prelude to what the group says will be an all-out effort in the upcoming state legislative session, members of the local activist organization Athens For Everyone showed up for a recent pre-legislative meeting of Athens-Clarke County’s mayor and commission and the five members of the state legislative delegation to press for Medicaid expansion in Georgia. While they didn’t have a place on the agenda for last week’s pre-legislative meeting — an annual session in which Athens-Clarke officials ask for state legislative assistance on a broad range of issues — the handful of Athens For Everyone representatives who came to the City Hall meeting held up cards reading “600 Georgians will die in 2016 without Medicaid expansion,” and “7,998+ Athenians in Medicaid gap” as Commissioner Jared Bailey made a case for the expansion. (Thompson, 12/23)