Readers Write: Jan. 2

Ga. should consider expanding Medicaid

I read with interest Jim Galloway’s column about the depopulation of rural Georgia “Paying people to move to rural Ga.,” Political Insider, Dec. 24. Slashing state income taxes on retiree income did not work, as retirees are older people who need more health care, not less, and rural hospitals in Georgia have been failing. Now our Republican leaders are thinking that cutting taxes for millennials will work and they will populate rural Georgia. Well, millennials are a healthier group but I wonder if rural Georgia is where they want to live.

If Georgia expanded Medicaid, it would help save rural hospitals. With such an impoverished rural population, it might even bring some hospitals and health care providers back. Some of these people might move to provide medical services to a poor population. If we had hospitals and health care in rural Georgia, it would give jobs to doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, housekeepers, groundskeepers, activity therapists, the person who runs the café at the hospital and his/her staff, janitors; all kinds of people. Maybe we could combine that with tax cuts to lure people to south Georgia, including millennials and retirees.