We Can’t Live Without You?

Editor's Note: Happy Holidays! It would nice if we could all avoid hating, or being judgmental, or, for that matter; being arrogant in 2014.  What a great dream! We will see you in the new year! Peace and thanks for your support to all of our readers from all of us.

Posted by Crystal Norwood, DOWNTOWN ATLANTA, GA – With all the endless negative media coverage going on about Obamacare, it’s important to consider existing municipal hospitals that have been ‘accepting’ those without health insurance. Grady Hospital remains Georgia’s largest, and it's still considered to be the epi-center of free healthcare for metro Atlanta. 

You would think that the prospect of Obamacare would be welcomed by Grady officials because budgets have been tight since 2008. But this is not case because the hospital could potentially lose millions of dollars in state and federal aid. Some Grady official even stated that the Affordable Care Act could be the worst thing to happen to the hospital – and this was said some five years after Grady had already made drastic cuts to its ‘charity’ healthcare service provision because it was in dire times budget-wise.

So this brings up the question: Are you a liability or an asset? I suppose this question is proposed when an insurance company weighs the options of covering your healthcare expenses. Has Grady decided that the prospect of some kind of universal health insurance means that those with government subsidies are a liability?  Wouldn’t it be better for our society if the people were healthier because they had reliable healthcare insurance? 

As the two of my photographs show, Grady has large cloth posters conspicuously present all around the hospital stating: “Can’t Live Without You”. But, my question is, without whom? 

Crystal Norwood is Sociology major at Georgia State University (GSU) and can be contacted at Cnorwood5@student.gsu.edu. Grady Hospital is located at the eastern terminus of the GSU campus.