Lawmaker promises health care help to low-paid state workers

ATLANTA - An Atlanta lawmaker promised help Monday to state employees who can&#39;t afford to pay the rising premiums for state health care coverage, but don&#39;t qualify for Medicaid, either. <br> <br> ``You don&#39;t need to be left out in the cold,&#39;&#39; Rep. Nan Orrock, D-Atlanta, told several hundred members of the Service Employees International Union during a rally on the Capitol steps. <br> <br> An estimated 41 percent of state employees earn less than $25,000 a year, and many say they can&#39;t afford the costs of the state insurance program for themselves and their children. But they can&#39;t qualify for Medicaid, either. <br> <br> Lawmakers agreed last year to broaden the Medicaid eligibility rules to cover many of those employees, but the money to do so was frozen by Gov. Roy Barnes when state tax collections began dipping and he has not recommended restoring the money. <br> <br> ``The irony is, we have state workers who enroll families in Medicaid and Peach Care but they are not eligible themselves,&#39;&#39; Orrock said. <br> <br> She said she planned to work with the state employees to try to restore the program. <br> <br>