Healthy local hospitals benefit economy, residents
Keeping Georgia’s community hospitals competitive and financially sound reaps dividends for the health of Georgia’s population and our economy. These publicly owned facilities fulfill their mission with a commitment to transparency even as they provide billions in uncompensated care in a market where they compete with providers who take only paying customers.
We disagree with the interpretation of the law reflected in the story, “Nonprofit hospitals under pressure over transparency, charity,” (News, Jan. 6) and expect to prevail in court that Georgia’s publicly owned hospitals comply fully with open records laws and court rulings. If laws or court rulings change, our member hospitals will faithfully follow any new requirements.
Northside Hospital’s total annual profit represents only 80 days of operating expenses for an organization that employs 16,000 Georgians. A community benefits when its publicly owned hospital has strong financial footing, particularly at a time when so many of our hospitals are struggling.
MONTY VEAZEY, GEORGIA ALLIANCE OF COMMUNITY HOSPITALS
Demographic change is part of today’s world
Pat Buchanan is to be commended for his unapologetic column stating that “mass migration from the global South … is the real existential crisis of the West” (“History will validate Trump’s insistence on the border wall,” Opinion, Jan. 18). It starkly reminds us of his misogynistic, racist belief that America must be preserved for white men. It gives older white men like me the opportunity to tell him that I do not fear a “more multiracial, multiethnic, multicultural, multilingual America.” These changes will continue to occur not because Democrats like me are hostile to white men, but because it will be impossible to stop the natural movement of humans striving for better. America can become stronger by promoting rational, constructive systems to turn these newcomers into good Americans, like us. America can become the leader of the whole world if we become an American version of the whole world.
PHIL MOISE, ATLANTA
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