Georgia’s Medicaid managed care procurement is in the final stages of consideration and is expected to be the largest in the state’s history. Chaos ensued after the state chose to overhaul this contract and select new-to-Georgia providers in a procurement process that has been challenged through dozens of legal protests.
These protests allege everything from improper behavior to major conflicts of interest to a lack of transparency. This decision could upend the lives of millions of Georgians who rely on their Medicaid benefits.
Now, the narrative is disputed and is tricky for Georgia’s Republican slate of candidates in 2026, who will have to answer if the state’s Medicaid procurement process was injected with politics.
The prevailing narrative is this: the process has been hijacked by left-wing bureaucrats who have chosen recipients based on their responses to questions on diversity and transgender care.
Dome Politics reached out to five state senators to ask them about this process and if there was any truth to it. None responded, but we were pointed in a different direction: analyst Brian Robinson, who currently runs a communications consulting firm.
It is important to note that Robinson clarified he is not a spokesperson or expert on this matter. He simply shared what he knew about the issue.
He was first asked about the process regarding contract recipients who answered favorably to questions about transgenderism. He flatly denied that the process was even hijacked and claimed that the question was actually about mental health care in general.
When he was asked about whether Georgians should be worried about this process, he responded by flipping the narrative. He pointed in the direction of Centene, a for-profit healthcare company in charge of the Peach State Health Plan organization.
For context, Peach State Health lost in the bidding competition to manage Georgia’s Medicaid program.
Robinson claims that Centene is now trying to delegitimize the procurement process by spreading the narrative that it was hijacked by left-wing bureaucrats.
According to Robinson, Centene has had internal problems pertaining to service delivery and over-billing, and they are trying to compensate for it. He also clarified that the question about mental health was not even determinative: it essentially made no difference.
Because of this, the narrative around the Medicaid procurement process is unclear and up to debate.
Georgia Republicans may not have much to worry about in 2026, and the whole thing is likely to just blow over.
