Rural hospital closures, healthcare accessibility and the ongoing housing crisis took center stage during a recent Columbus Board of Realtors meeting, where U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop addressed representatives from across Georgia.
Bishop highlighted one of the state’s most urgent challenges: the closure of 18 rural hospitals, including a facility in Cuthbert that has been shuttered for three years. Local leaders there continue to push for funding and policy changes to reopen it.
“Because of the lack of Medicaid expansion, populations in these areas have declined, and facilities simply cannot operate,” Bishop said. Rising medical costs and inadequate funding, he added, have left other rural hospitals on the brink of closure, creating what he called “an essential quality-of-life issue” for rural residents…