Obamacare Forces Closure of Four Ga. Hospitals

Obamacare has now forced four hospitals in Georgia out of business.

These hospitals were hurt financially after President Barack Obama's health care law slashed money for emergency services.

The Daily Caller reports the latest facility to close, the Lower Oconee Community Hospital, is in an area where 23 percent of the residents are uninsured.

The federal government used to help cover hospital costs for uninsured people, but those payments were dropped to force states to sign on for new Medicaid funding provided in the law.

But Obamacare dictates that extra federal Medicaid funding will be scaled back over the years.

That's partly why Georgia and 24 other states refused to expand their Medicaid programs. It means they would be left paying more out-of-state funds in the long run.

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal's budget officials estimate that expanding Georgia's Medicaid system over a decade would cost the state government $2.8 billion.

Governors are also concerned that changes or other shortfalls in Obamacare would leave them holding the bag for vastly expanded Medicaid rolls.

"I mean, here we would be saying to 300,000 Mississippians, 'We're going to provide Medicaid coverage to you,'" Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant explained to the Associated Press last December.

"And then the federal government through Congress or through the Senate, would do away with or alter the Affordable Care Act, and then we have no way to pay that," he continued. "We have no way to continue the coverage."