---
type: "Bill"
title: "\"Direct Primary Care Act\""
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 7 of Title 33 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to kinds of insurance, limits of risks, and reinsurance, so as to provide definitions; to provide that direct primary care agreements are not insurance; to exempt such agreements from regulation as insurance; to provide for discontinuance of services under certain circumstances; to provide a short title; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2019_20"
identifier: "SB 18"
citation: "Georgia SB 18 (2019_20)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Ben Watson", "Burt Jones", "Chuck Hufstetler", "Dean Burke", "Ed Harbison", "Kay Kirkpatrick"]
version_count: 5
action_count: 17
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2019-01-16"
last_action: "2019-07-01"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/bfbcca5e-b839-4ac2-b638-d8604495d34b"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "17c03a3d783fac9f661c1146850921e4760931b9a65d559d26a8714c1d6bb26b"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ga"]
---

# Georgia SB 18 (2019_20) — "Direct Primary Care Act"

A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Chapter 7 of Title 33 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to kinds of insurance, limits of risks, and reinsurance, so as to provide definitions; to provide that direct primary care agreements are not insurance; to exempt such agreements from regulation as insurance; to provide for discontinuance of services under certain circumstances; to provide a short title; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **As Introduced LC 46 0017ER** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/179544.pdf)
2. **As passed Senate** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/182851.pdf)
3. **Committee Sub LC 33 7724S** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/181445.pdf)
4. **Committee Sub LC 33 7736S** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/182206.pdf)
5. **SB 18/AP*** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20192020/184793.pdf)

## Votes

- PASSAGE BY SUBSTITUTE — **55–0** (pass) · upper

## Sponsors

- Ben Watson — primary (person)
- Burt Jones — primary (person)
- Chuck Hufstetler — primary (person)
- Dean Burke — primary (person)
- Ed Harbison — primary (person)
- Kay Kirkpatrick — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2019-01-16** Senate Hopper
- **2019-01-17** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-14** Senate Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-02-15** Senate Read Second Time `reading-2`
- **2019-02-20** Senate Recommitted `referral-committee`
- **2019-02-21** Senate Committee Favorably Reported By Substitute `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-02-26** Senate Third Read `reading-3`
- **2019-02-26** Senate Passed/Adopted By Substitute `passage`
- **2019-02-27** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2019-02-28** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2019-03-13** House Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2019-03-14** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2019-03-14** House Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2019-04-05** Senate Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2019-04-25** Senate Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2019-04-25** Act 47 `executive-signature`
- **2019-07-01** Effective Date

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/bfbcca5e-b839-4ac2-b638-d8604495d34b`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).