Remarks by Dana Barrett
158 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 7
- Play at 19:48
“And it's in the order of 596 being first, correct? Correct, yes. Thank you.”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 24:24
“Good morning, everyone. Chairman Pitts has asked me to read this proclamation on his behalf this morning. Y'all, come on both sides. Thank you all for being here. And the proclamation reads, whereas every year, World Field Epidemiology Day, it's not my day today, celebrated on September 7th, recognizes the role epidemiologists play in protecting the health of people around the world. The day honors field epidemiologists who track, investigate, and stop disease outbreaks. God, you guys are going to make me say this word like 20 times.”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 25:08
“There you go. The goal of the Fulton County Board of Health's Office of Epidemiology is to track the occurrence, growth, and development of diseases and illnesses to protect the health of the general public in Fulton County. And whereas, while the ultimate goal is quick containment when the threat of an outbreak escalates, this program provides assessment and coordinates with other government agencies to create strategies and policies that address arising issues. And whereas in order to prevent the future spread or a return of an outbreak, the Epidemiology Office provides ongoing guidance and…”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 41:12
“I don't know. Y'all, this is a proclamation remembering the anniversary of the 1906 Atlanta Race Massacre, which occurred or began, actually, it was a multi-day massacre that occurred over four days starting on September 28th. 1906. And so Anne Hill Bond from the Fulton County Remembrance Coalition asked us in Fulton County to help them share this important anniversary and take some time to honor the history of the people who died and whose lives were impacted. The proclamation reads, whereas Fulton County is committed to truth telling about its full history, including its history of racial…”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:22:15
“Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I, for the most part, agree with everything my colleagues have said, and in particular, Madam Vice Chair, I completely agree with you. I have some questions, for starters. You know, and this is really directed to you, Ray, or to county management, but you know, this timeline that we have every year is And Commissioner Arrington brought it up. You know, we get a presentation of the proposed rates a couple of days a week before this meeting. And we are informed that we essentially have no choice but to accept what is being put in front of us. Because if we don't, we…”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:24:55
“Yeah, I mean, I think we need to have an official policy that this comes earlier so that we do have the opportunity to push back. You know, this is...”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:25:42
“Is it... Is it find a better provider that's not going to double, you know, give us a 19.1% increase? Right. I mean, we need some competition here. Right. And we don't even have time to demand that. Right. You know... So let me ask you just a little bit further about the timeline here because we are now, you know, September 16th. Right. I just saw an email that said open enrollment starts in like two weeks or something. Is that correct? What is the legal requirement for open enrollment time period?”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:26:36
“Okay, so right now, open enrollment would go from the end of this month through, when does it end?”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:26:48
“October 9th. So they have, people have two weeks basically or something like that.”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:26:55
“Well, so what can be done to expedite? Cause it sounds like what we're really saying is there's a long administrative time period between, um, when open enrollment ends and the work that has to get done to make sure everybody's on the right plan and has their cards. That seems excessive, that it's gonna take multiple months to get an administrative process done, which I'm sure, and I'm sure there's reasons, and I'm not an expert on how you do your work, but I think, you know, my question would be what can be done to push open enrollment, either start it later or end it later, or something so…”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:30:13
“I mean, I hear what you're saying, and I appreciate what you're saying. But at the same time, Anthem has a role. And part of that role is negotiating with the providers. Apparently, they're not doing a great job of that. Just bear with me for a minute. And clearly, because it's page two of your presentation from Siegel, you are laying out a bunch of reasons as to why our healthcare costs have risen. Some of those are the health of the population in the county. The number one thing on here is the first thing, I'm taking them to be in order of importance, that could be wrong. But the first…”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:31:30
“Yeah, well, I go to two of these already, and I'm planning on changing that. Metro Derm, Eye South Partners, which is Georgia Eye Partners, and Steele Dermatology, just to name a few. And I don't know how many of those are, you know, our claims are, I don't know. But I think it's worth taking a pause about the Fulton County situation and to just say about health care in general, private equity is, and maximizing profits, is fine when you're talking about widgets and cars, maybe not even cars, but it's not fine when you're talking about lives. And it's not fine when you're talking about…”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:33:27
“So we're raising taxes, arguably, or we're cutting services in some other arena so that private equity and insurance companies can maximize profits. That's what taxpayers are having to bear. I'm not okay with that. And I'm especially not okay with it when it's double the annual or the national sort of increase of 8.9, whatever it was, 8 to 9% that we're seeing around the country, right, as the rate increase. Like normally I'd be complaining about Kaiser at a 9 point something percent increase, but that is aligned with the market as much as I don't like it. It is what it is. 19.1, not so much.…”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:43:26
“Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to add to the crystal clarity here. The options I certainly want to see are not about how we can reduce the level of service for our employees. So to me, the options of making the employees pay more, a higher share of the same dollar amount or the same increase or having employees get less benefit you know higher out of pocket higher deductible that those are not the options that i'm interested in i want to hear options that include better negotiation in 2027 on the uh On the IDRs, I want to hear options that include better negotiations in 2027 for this…”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 2:46:06
“I didn't ask a question, so I'm not inviting Tom, thank you.”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:08:55
“I'll be quick, just two more things. We keep talking about this administrative fee as if it's like putting stamps on envelopes. Can you please, Ray, you can explain what is it we're paying for in the administration fee?”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:09:14
“Just claims handling. So you're saying the plans themselves, there's no responsibility on Anthem's part for negotiating rates?”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:09:39
“So I don't really want a whole long thing. I'm not just asking you, Ray. I don't need everybody to talk. I just want to understand, because I don't want to drag this out too much longer, but I just want to understand whose responsibility it is to negotiate the various rates and to fight the... you know, the dispute resolutions and to therefore help bring our costs down. I get that we can't change the health of our, directly in this moment, change the health of our employees, our experience, but... Is it your job right to... No, it is Anthem.”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 3:10:35
“Okay, thank you for that. And I also want to say, if we don't push back... We, elected officials here and in any other municipality or county or whatever, nobody will. And we have to push back on companies who are maximizing profits on the backs of our taxpayers and our employees, including the private equity health care providers. I'll just say for myself, if we end up having to inform people about who these private equity, and again, my Google is not a fair representation, but if we need to, we know who's in our network. We know who's in network. We should know who they are and how they're…”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 4:10:09
“This is where all of our CFS awards recipients are getting together. This is a great group of artists who we gave grants to. We don't usually get to mix with each other, so we get to celebrate together that they are winners of our arts grants and just celebrate the arts in Fulton County.”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 4:21:07
“This is where all of our CFS awards recipients are getting together. This is a great group of artists who we gave grants to. We don't usually get to mix with each other, so we get to celebrate together that they are winners of our arts grants and just celebrate the arts in Fulton County.”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 5:12:32
“Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I know we talked about getting to the reasons for the separations. I know we had to get some time. to pass to get some of this back? Where are we on that?”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 5:13:32
“And just remind me, did we add something to the exit process for ongoing where people are just answering that question at the time of their exit as opposed to having to go back?”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 5:14:05
“Is that effective? I mean, I'm just wondering, like, if they sent me a link and I didn't have to do it and I'm quitting, like, why would I do it?”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026
- Play at 5:14:40
“Totally agree with that point. I'm just wondering if there's, is there any way that would be even more likely to net results? And is that netting results, I guess, is the question.”
Board of Commissioners · Sep 16, 2026