Access to quality healthcare and our state’s maternal mortality rates are major issues. In order to address them, Brian sponsored legislation to allow for more Georgians to obtain insurance coverage through medicaid in order to bring more federal dollars back home to assist with access to care to those that can’t afford insurance. Brian also sponsored legislation to bring more insurance options in the market-place to bring in more competition and lower the cost of insurance. In addition, in order to directly assist with access to qualify healthcare in our state, Brian supported adding the following items to the 2020 budget:
-$50,000.00 to expand comprehensive treatment, prevention and recovery support services to pregnant and postpartum women living with substance use and disorder
-$6M for the SHINES information technology project and $1.2M for growth in adoptions services in the Department of Human Services—Child Welfare Services program
-$1.9M for 139 new residency slots in primary care medicine
- $125,000.00 for second year gynecological oncology fellowship at Augusta University
-$828,000.00 for 54 new OB/GYN slots in residency programs
-$352,000.00 for the Rural Surgery Initiative
-$381,000.00 for new child and adolescent psychiatry slots
-$180,000.00 for grants for South Georgia Medical Center residency program
-$500,000.00 for a Center of Excellence on Maternal Mortality at Morehouse School of Medicine
-$1,000,000.00 in new funding for maternal health to screen, refer, and treat maternal depression and related behavioral disorders in rural and underserved areas of the state
-$200,000.00 for the Maternal Mortality Review Committee
-$150,000.00 for a nurse peer assistance program to support nurses recovering from substance abuse
-$300,000.00 for regional cancer coalitions to enhance screenings, awareness, prevention education, care coordination and navigation
-$150,000.00 for the Sickle Cell Foundation for sickle cell outreach offices to improve access to care in underserved areas
-$500,000.00 for feminine hygiene products to be provided to low-income clients at county health departments
-$2.3M for newborn screenings to include four additional disorders that have been approved by the screening advisory committee of the Department of Public Health
Overall Brian has supported investing the following in the following programs in the 2017-2019 budgets alone:
$42,806,414 in Women’s Health
$605,000.00 in Georgia Early Hearing Detection and Intervention
$71,887,392.00 in the Babies Can’t Wait program
$37,932,937.00 in Children Medical Services
$14,373,006.00 in the Children First program
$3,519,005.00 in Autism
$8,687,088.00 in Genetics/Sickle Cell
$9,898,860.00 in Infant and Child Oral Healt
$6,386,108.00 in Perinatal/Maternal Health
$4,765,353.00 in Regional Tertiary Care Centers
$29,600,589.00 in Comprehensive Child Health
Georgia State Senate District 17 encompasses parts of Newton, Henry, and Rockdale counties with nearly 150,000 registered voters. Brian Strickland entered his second full term in the Georgia Senate in 2020. Brian, his wife Lindsay, and their two children reside in McDonough, GA. Through Brian’s leadership position at the capitol where he fights for District 17, and all of Georgia, he has impacted Georgia for the better through various executed actions. Not only did Brian support the First Responder bill which aids police, firefighter, and EMS personnel but he was a key player in the passing of the Georgia Criminal Justice reform bills and Georgia Surprise Medical ills. Above and beyond that, Brian labored to bring funding to Southern Crescent Technical College making it one of the top technical schools in Georgia and is constantly raising the bar in the fight against human trafficking.
