AMC closure becoming a hot-button issue in Georgia governor’s race

ATLANTA — Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens sent a letter this week to Wellstar Health System saying the health care company still has responsibilities in the city even after the closure of Atlanta Medical Center on Nov. 1.

Just a few days after the hospital closes, voters will go to the polls to elect a governor, making AMC’s closure a campaign issue now.

Channel 2 political reporter Richard Elliot spoke to both gubernatorial candidates Friday about the issues.

In the mayor’s letter, he said, “Wellstar still has a responsibility to this community.”

Dickens asked Wellstar for detailed transition plans for its patients as well as support plans for its medical staff and students. He also demanded that its 25-acre property along Boulevard still be dedicated to some kind of health care.

“The loss of the Atlanta Medical Center will have wide-ranging, devastating implications for Georgia,” Democratic candidate for governor Stacey Abrams said during a virtual news conference Friday.

Abrams laid the blame for AMC’s closure at the feet of Republican Gov. Brian Kemp’s refusal to fully expand Medicaid.

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“The problem is solvable, and it was also preventable. In 38 states, they have expanded Medicaid, and Medicaid expansion has worked to stave off the very crisis we are seeing here in Georgia,” Abrams said.

Not long after Abrams’ news conference, Elliot was with Kemp as he and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley went to The Varsity in Midtown on a campaign swing.

“We’re hard at work. My team is as well, and we’re going to figure this out,” Kemp said.

Elliot asked him about the AMC closure, and he pointed out that Wellstar said last week a fully expanded Medicaid would not have saved AMC.

“She blames everybody else for anything that happens that we had nothing to do with. The hospital’s made it very clear. Expanding Medicaid would not have saved that facility,” Kemp said.

The closing of AMC and healthcare could become a more important campaign issue going forward.

Haley pointed out that many voters are just as concerned, if not more concerned, about the economy and crime.

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A nurse at AMC spoke only to Channel 2 about the impacts this will have on patients, the community and hospital staff

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