(Bloomberg) -- The surprise closing of a major hospital in downtown Atlanta has become a flash point in Georgia’s fierce governor’s race, with Democrat Stacey Abrams holding a press conference outside Atlanta Medical Center on Friday to lay the blame squarely on Republican Governor Brian Kemp and his failure to expand Medicaid.

Wellstar Health Systems announced late Wednesday that it will close Atlanta Medical Center on Nov. 1, after losing more than $100 million there last year. The 460-bed hospital, which is more than a century old, is one of two Level One trauma centers in metro Atlanta, and five in the state capable of handling the most serious kinds injury.

It’s also one of two Atlanta hospitals with a heavy caseload of low-income patients, which is the heart of Abrams argument that Kemp is to blame. Georgia is one of just 12 states that have not expanded Medicaid eligibility under Obamacare. As she did when she first ran for governor in 2018, Abrams has made full Medicaid expansion a key part of her campaign.  

Georgia has seen 14 hospital closures since 2013, and nearly half of them “have occurred under one governor and one person and that is Brian Kemp,” Abrams said at the press event.

The closing announcement brings what had largely been a rural phenomenon into the heart of Atlanta, and leaves just one Level One trauma center in the area that holds half the state’s entire population, Abrams said. She blamed Kemp’s failure to expand Medicaid, which she said has helped stabilize health care systems in other states.

“This is a solvable problem, but we cannot solve it with the person who created the problem,” she said.

But in a statement to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Wellstar said that Medicaid expansion alone would not have saved Atlanta Medical Center, a statement that Kemp’s campaign turned on Abrams. “That doesn’t’ fit Stacey Abrams’ political narrative, so she’s falsely blaming Governor Kemp,” campaign spokesman Tate Mitchell said in an email. “Stacey Abrams is allergic to the truth.”

Georgia first refused to expand Medicaid under former Republican Governor, Nathan Deal. Kemp followed suit. At the end of Donald’s Trump presidency, the state received approval for a limited expansion with work and other requirements.  A federal judge cleared the way for that last month.

 

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