North Gwinnett News

The planned closure of Wellstar Atlanta Medical Center has become a hot-button issue in the race for governor between incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp and Democrat Stacey Abrams.

While the closure will impact employees, it will also have a ripple effect, especially for minorities and underserved communities; a recent report from FOX 5 Atlanta said. 

“It's really important for us as a city and as a community to make a commitment to ensuring that everyone has access regardless of where you live, how much money you make," Rodney Lyn, Dean of Georgia State University’s School of Public Health, told FOX 5.

With the medical center having a long history of doing charity work in the community, critics of the plan argue the closure is primed to have a ripple effect across the community.

As concern and outrage have deepened over the planned closure, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens is now set to meet with Wellstar in the coming days in hopes of finding a pathway forward for the hospital to perhaps remain in service, the FOX 5 report said.

Abrams has wasted little time pointing an accusatory finger at Kemp, charging that his inaction on Medicaid expansion is one of the primary reasons why the hospital now finds itself in its current state. 

"The uncompensated care rate that is closing this hospital would have been mitigated, and we know it's true because, in every state that has expanded Medicaid, they have seen their uncompensated care rate slashed in half," Abrams told FOX 5.