Georgia publicly touts its Medicaid experiment as a success. Numbers tell a different story: Only 6,500 participants have enrolled in a program that has cost taxpayers more than $86 million.

• Price of Independence: Georgia’s experimental alternative to Medicaid expansion has cost taxpayers more than $86 million.
• Enrollment Shortfall: Only 6,500 participants have enrolled in the first 18 months of the program — roughly 75% fewer than the state had estimated for year one.
• Work Slowdown: The state found it difficult to verify that people are working to keep their benefits, so Georgia has gone from monthly checks to annual ones.