City should find a way to reopen Atlanta Medical Center
I am an average Atlanta taxpayer and citizen. I’m not a financier, not connected to a hospital, not a city planner. But I do know Atlanta projects itself as a wealthy city continually on the rise.
But something is missing, and the closing of Wellstar’s Atlanta Medical Center illustrates it. The Oct. 18 Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that other hospitals are already feeling crunched by increasing numbers of patients who went to AMC for medical help.
Here’s where common sense, the missing factor, could help the city. The AMC facility is intact, ready to continue serving the city if only someone would take up the challenge. Common sense says that wealthy cities do all in their power to see to the needs of all its citizens. It says that great cities do not leave perfectly good medical facilities shuttered. It says that if Atlanta really wants upper-echelon recognition, it will figure out ways to call on its own resources and those of corporations and foundations to reopen AMC as a not-for-profit institution.
RICKS CARSON, ATLANTA
Expanded welfare creates growing dependence on government
Re: “I’m an ER doctor afraid for my patients” (Atlanta Forward, Oct. 18). The doctor’s dismay is caused by a lack of free medical care. The lack of medical care for those with insurance is caused by the overcrowding of emergency rooms by non-insured freeloaders.
Offering expanded welfare has created a growing need for government dependence. Those dependent on taxpayer funding for their existence have grown in number due to politicians’ promise to eliminate inequity. Their promises have been fulfilled in part by offering free rent, food and a lifestyle free of responsibility. This lifestyle free of responsibility is the cause of hypertension and diabetes, which requires free treatment. A perpetual round-robin.
If the doctor’s fear is lessened, it will require a greater contribution by taxpayers: A vote for Abrams and Warnock will ensure that.
JACK FRANKLIN, CONYERS
