As Donald Trump heads to Georgia to tout his economy, doctors, nurses, hospital executives, and health policy experts across the state are sounding the alarm about what Republican policies mean for the state’s hospitals. From Fort Gaines to Savannah, frontline providers say the combination of Republicans’ ripping away the Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits and slashing over $1 trillion from Medicaid and the ACA is pushing already-strained hospitals closer to the brink.
Rural hospital leaders warn they are being forced to cut services, close departments, and weigh whether they can keep their doors open at all. Experts caution that as hard-working families lose coverage, uncompensated care costs will surge, leading to higher bills and increased premiums for everyone else. Advocates say the GOP rural health pity fund fails to fill the gap in funding Republicans created. While Trump campaigns in Georgia, the experts on the ground are issuing a stark assessment: fewer people covered means weaker hospitals, fewer services, and higher risks for patients across the state all because of Republicans.
Protect Our Care’s Hospital Crisis Watch tracks the harm Trump and the GOP’s Big, Ugly Bill is doing to hospitals and care facilities around the country. In Georgia:
At Risk
- Clinch Memorial Hospital
- Eisenhower Army Medical Center
- Evans Memorial Hospital
- Fannin Regional Hospital
- Flint River Community Hospital
- Irwin County Hospital
- Washington County Regional Medical Center
Cuts Announced
- Emory Healthcare
Ward Closed
- St. Mary’s Sacred Heart Hospital – Labor & Delivery Unit
Closure Announced
- Savannah Birth and Wellness Center
Experts
Dr. Karen Kinsell, Physician, Fort Gaines
- “Kinsell said she expects conditions for rural hospitals in Georgia to worsen, and to states who chose to expand Medicaid, look no further than southwest Georgia for a glimpse of what Medicaid cuts will do to rural hospitals around the country. ‘People are going to die, they’re going to be scared and injured longer,’” she said. ‘There are going to be a lot more people more permanently disabled because they weren’t able to access health care properly.’” [The Albany Herald]
Former Nurse, St. Mary’s Sacred Heart Hospital – Labor & Delivery Unit
- “‘It’s pretty shitty to get rid of a unit that was critical access for women who couldn’t afford to make it to the other hospitals. A lot of these women are either going to have babies on the road because they can’t make it in time, or they’re gonna just go into labor and go into the ER here, and hope that the ER can deliver their baby. Because a lot of people think that that’ll be the same, and it’s not.’” [NOTUS]
Kathy Akins, Nurse, Evans Memorial Hospital
- “‘What keeps me up at night is keeping my rural hospital alive,’ she said.” [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]
Bill Lee, CEO, Evans Memorial Hospital
- “Lee says that the hospital will be forced to cut around $3.3 million from their annual budget. This is after the hospital also had to cut their OBGYN services. Lee says there could be more cuts on the horizon. ‘We are forced to think about issues and services that we would need to cut, ICU would be one that would fall quickly on the list,’ said Lee.”
- “Lee tells WTOC that he hopes rural hospitals just like Evans, find a way to survive these budget cuts. ‘I’m a firm believer that it isn’t about bipartisan politics, this is about relevance and survivability.’” [WTOC]
Shauna Joye, Owner, Joye Psychology & Wellness
- “Her facility is one of the only independent clinics within a two-hour drive that accepts Medicaid for psychological assessments for children.”
- “‘That’s where we get a lot of our referrals, preventative care or the pediatricians and well-check,’ she said. ‘They’re gonna be the ones that are referring them for evaluation, so they’re kind of our first line of defense when it comes to screening. So I do worry that even if there’s not too much of a change with mental health, what about if there’s a change with primary care and the downstream effects of that? I guess I’m just kind of waiting for the shoe to drop and find out what’s gonna happen as far as the coverage for our clients.’” [The Current]
Natalie Crawford, Executive Director, Georgia First
- “These federal cuts will ‘gut Georgia’s rural providers and communities.’”
- “‘Band-Aids like this program [Georgia’s Rural Hospital Tax Credit Program] aren’t going to save our rural health system from the coming pressures that, if not addressed, will generate a full-blown crisis for our state.’” [Georgia Recorder]
Leah Chan, Director of Health Justice, Georgia Budget and Policy Institute
- “‘We know that many of those rural safety net hospitals are already under substantial pressure due in part to high uncompensated care costs,’ Chan said. ‘The loss of the supplementary federal funds basically adds fuel to what is already a smoldering fire for us in terms of our health care system.’”
- “‘What we can see from the application is, in fact, these rural health transformation funds do not address the loss of these federal provider payments,’ she said. ‘So essentially, our state is left to pick up the tab.’” [Georgia Recorder]
Callan Wells, Senior Health Policy Manager, Georgia Early Education Alliance
- “‘Children rely on the adults around them—parents, teachers, neighbors, extended family—to keep them safe, healthy and fed,’ Wells said. ‘While the bill may exempt parents of young children from work requirements, it does not shield the broader network of caregivers who help raise them. In other words, when adults lose access to healthcare or nutrition support, children also experience that loss.’” [WMGT]
Whitney Griggs, Director of Health Policy, Georgians for a Healthy Future
- “‘Because Georgia has not expanded Medicaid, we have more low-income individuals enrolled in the marketplace or Georgia Access than most states […] Those folks are going to feel the pain of these premium increases the most.’” [Georgia Recorder]