A writer once claimed, “the groundwork for all happiness is good health.” Georgia’s healthcare systems and hospitals truly are beating hearts of the health and success of our communities. Their continued viability and success are crucial to the future of our vibrant state and everyone who calls Georgia home.
I’ve spent years identifying and serving the developing needs of my community. During my time with the Latin American Association, I’ve worked with many individuals in need of support — often including accessible, reliable healthcare. Having access to quality 24/7/365 care from our local hospitals and health systems is literally life-changing. Hospitals are the only sites of care that provide many emergency treatments and specialty services that can mean the difference between life and death.
When many people think of hospitals, they imagine emergency response centers. While ERs are essential, they only scratch the surface of what our hospitals and health systems provide. From trauma care and burn units to NICUs and in-patient psychiatric care, hospitals are robust and versatile care providers for every patient who walks through their doors. Acting as the around-the-clock care patients count on, the wide array of services hospitals provide is vital. Overall, hospitals tend to see sicker patients, lower-income patients, and patients with more complex conditions than other types of care providers. To put it simply: Hospitals are for everyone.
New research from Morehouse College, Emory’s School of Nursing, and the Latino Community Fund underscores that our communities cannot afford to see access to either physical or mental healthcare narrow. One of the authors of this 2023 Health Status of Latinos in Georgia Report, Dr. Roxana Chicas, describes its findings as “a mental health crisis within the Latino community.”
But as much as we rely on them, our hospitals and health systems are at risk. With Medicare reimbursing just 82 cents for every dollar that hospitals spend on patient care, a majority of America’s hospitals are left operating at a financial loss. And while the resources flowing into hospitals are not coming quickly enough, the wide array of costs that hospitals face have climbed high and fast. From drug prices to labor costs to overall inflation, our health systems have been leaned on to keep doing more with less. It’s proving unsustainable. Many hospitals have already had to reduce the services they offer or shut their doors altogether — leaving patients with even fewer ways to access care. This would constitute an emergency in any field, but especially in one as critical as healthcare access.
This isn’t just an inconvenience; it’s a crisis. Especially in rural and underserved regions, hospitals end up functioning as the primary place to access treatments and even routine care. 120 of our 159 counties are rural, and in particular, rural Latino communities are growing. When rural hospitals close, rural residents have even fewer places they can turn. I’ve heard stories of how families face the impossible choice to either travel extensive distances for care access or forgo it altogether. And since injuries, illnesses, and emergencies can happen at any time, inaccessible care access has the potential to be a serious risk to our communities.
The current trajectory puts patients and communities at risk. We can’t accept that. If hospitals’ costs stay high and the government’s reimbursement rates continue to lag far behind hospitals, and healthcare systems will not have the resources to maintain high-quality, 24/7 complex care for patients — let alone drive the healthcare innovation that we expect or prepare for future health challenges like the next pandemic.
Policymakers must ensure hospitals have the resources they need to provide the care patients deserve. The groundwork for happiness is good health, and a healthy Georgia will need healthy hospitals.
