Georgia Men Are Not Avoiding Health Care. They Are Being Locked Out of It.

Every June, Men’s Health Month asks men to take their health seriously. We see the social media posts, the reminders to schedule checkups, and the encouragement to talk openly about our health. It is well-intentioned. But for hundreds of thousands of Georgia men without health insurance, the barrier is not a lack of awareness. It is access.

Forty states have extended Medicaid coverage to adults with low incomes who would otherwise go uninsured. Georgia is not one of them. More than a decade into that national trend, Georgians remain locked out, and men, particularly men of color, are bearing that cost with their health and their lives.

I think about a father that SAFE supports through our InsideOut Dad Program. He is showing up for his family. He is working a full-time job. He is trying, every day, to do right by the people who depend on him. And still, he cannot afford to see a doctor. Not for a checkup. Not for the thing that has been bothering him for months. Not until a health crisis lands him in an emergency room, where care is both more traumatic and expensive than any preventive care would have been.

That is not a story about a man who gave up on his health. It is a story about a system that has not reached him. The data make that impossible to ignore.

The Numbers

Men are half as likely as women to seek out preventive care, including the annual exams and screenings that catch problems before they turn into a crisis. The consequences are measurable. Nationally, men face a cancer death rate of 171.5 per 100,000, compared to 126.3 per 100,000 for women. In Georgia, men carry more of that burden: in 2024, 9,875 Georgia men died of cancer compared to 9,057 women.

That gap is not purely biological. It is shaped by decades of cultural messaging that equates seeking help with weakness, compounded by real structural barriers: the cost of care, lack of insurance, and jobs that make it hard to step away for an appointment. When the system is hard to access, and the culture says not to bother, many men simply do not seek care.

Nationally, 32 percent of men say they have skipped or postponed needed health care in the past year because of cost. In Georgia, 16.4 percent of adults went without needed care because of cost, compared to a national average of 12.4 percent. When you do not have insurance, “I’ll deal with it later” is not a choice. It is the only option.

According to the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, men make up approximately 51 percent of uninsured low-income adults. Yet they represent only about 26 percent of applicants to Pathways to Coverage, the state’s restrictive Medicaid program for some low-income adults. That is not a coincidence. The Pathways program was designed with requirements like work documentation, reporting burdens, and administrative hurdles that make it difficult for the men who need it to actually participate and get health coverage.

Who Bears the Weight

Nearly 60 percent of the people in Georgia’s coverage gap are people of color. Approximately 21 percent live in rural counties, where provider shortages make access to care even more challenging. This is the direct consequence of a policy decision Georgia continues to make.

This is what I see in my work at SAFE, through our programs built around healing, fatherhood, and community. The men we serve have often been navigating health challenges, both physical and mental, for years without support. The culture of silence around men’s health is real. But it is also the consequence of a system that leaves too many men behind. When the system has made it clear that it was not built for you, you stop expecting it to help. You tolerate. You manage. You wait until you cannot.

What Another Choice Looks Like

Georgia’s situation is not inevitable. It is a policy decision, and other states have made a different choice.

States that have fully expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act have uninsured rates of 7.6 percent, compared to 14 percent in Georgia. The federal government currently pays 90 percent of expansion costs, meaning Georgia would receive substantial federal funding to provide coverage it has so far declined to extend.

The evidence on outcomes is equally clear. After Arkansas expanded Medicaid, low-income adults gained meaningful access to primary care and preventive services, skipped fewer medications due to cost, and reported better overall health than residents in Texas, which did not expand Medicaid. Men who had never had a regular source of health care were among those reached for the first time.

Georgia has the same option. At SAFE, we have seen what men can do when they have support. The evidence from other states shows what coverage makes possible. Georgia does not have to fall behind and have its citizens bear the cost.

The Will We Are Waiting For

I return to the man I described at the beginning. He is not a statistic. He is someone’s father, son, brother, and neighbor. He is working within a system that, through deliberate policy choices, has decided not to include him.

At SAFE, we believe in communities built on strong family bonds, a culture of care, and mutual respect. Medicaid expansion is not charity. It is the infrastructure that makes those values possible. It is the foundation on which men can stay healthy enough to show up for their families, their communities, and themselves.

The answer is full Medicaid expansion, and Georgia already has everything it needs to do it. Georgia has the tools, the evidence, and the federal support to act. The fathers, the workers, the neighbors, and the men who are still waiting need a system that finally shows up for them.

Geovani “Geo” Ayala

Executive Director, Serving At-risk Families Everywhere (SAFE)

S.A.F.E.’s mission is to assist communities that are marginalized, underrepresented, and underserved by providing personal and professional growth opportunities that lead to happy and healthy lives. S.A.F.E. envisions a community with a renewed sense of purpose, strong family bonds, a culture of care and responsibility, and respect for self and others. Learn more at servingatriskfamilies.org.