Jon Ossoff's Failed Promise to Reopen Hospitals Shows He has No Clue How to Help Rural Georgia

When Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) last ran a campaign, the nation was hyper focused on healthcare because we were in the middle of the COVID pandemic. It was fashionable for politicians to talk about healthcare so Ossoff made a big promise to Georgia voters—that he would reopen shuttered hospitals. 

Since 2013, the state has seen 18 hospital closures, forcing patients to travel further, delaying life and death treatments for conditions like uncontrolled bleeding, stroke, trauma, birth and a host of other time-sensitive conditions.     

Ossoff promised he would "work to" reopen the Stewart-Webster Hospital during a 2020 campaign stop in Richland, the Georgia Record reported. Any work he may have done has been fruitless so far—the 25-bed hospital closed in 2013 and remains closed today. 

"I'll . . . fight for resources to build more clinics and hospitals in underserved and marginalized communities here in Georgia," Ossoff said in a 2020 CNBC campaign interview. "I'll work to expand the U.S. public health service so that we have the healthcare professionals trained and available to serve the people here in Georgia. Half of our counties have no Ob/Gyn physician. We have among the highest maternal mortality rates in the country, more than 1.4 million Georgians with no health insurance at all. We had a public health crisis even before Covid-19. The good news is that it's no mystery how we solve it. When we control the Senate and the White House, we will."

But they didn't. 

'Doesn't Care About Rural Georgia' 

While trying to unseat Republican Sen. David Perdue in 2020, Ossoff really tore into him over hospital closures. 

"Where's David Perdue been while nine rural hospitals have closed?" Ossoff said to the Georgia Record. "David Perdue doesn't care about rural Georgia."

The clueless statement underscored Ossoff's lack of understanding of the complexities involved in restarting a hospital. 

"Ossoff said he would push to reopen shuttered rural hospitals through a direct federal appropriation while also opening new clinics in unserved areas," the Georgia Record wrote in 2020. 

With nearly an entire term under his belt, by his own measure, Ossoff doesn't care about rural Georgia because he has not managed to open any hospitals. 

Fast Talking Slow Moving 

A 2020 Time Magazine article featuring the Southwest Georgia Regional Medical Center in Cuthbert described the terrible condition of the Randolph County facility.

"The 73-year-old hospital needed over $10.5 million for structural improvements, including a new roof, asbestos abatement and an upgraded HVAC system," the article said. "It also needed new medical equipment and a surgeon to replace one who was retiring. Such investments were a pipedream for the facility, which hasn't been profitable in many years."

In 2024, Ossoff managed to get $11.8 million in federal funding for the Randolph County Hospital Authority to take steps toward "restoring healthcare access" in the region.

An additional $6.3 million for the same project came in 2024 through U.S. Rep. Sanford Bishop (D). Combined, that was $18.1 million from taxpayers to redevelop the building and reopen the 25-bed hospital that closed in 2020. 

Even with the federal money, it still has not reopened. 

"We have not secured a contractor to renovate the hospital yet, but we hope to have a contractor secured by July, and hopefully we will begin renovation in August," Randolph County Hospital Authority Chairman Steve Whatley told Restoration News. 

Once it starts, Whatley estimates work will continue for 18–24 months for the total renovation in the same footprint as the long-closed hospital. 

But even if it reopens in some capacity, the path to sustainability is unclear.

Poverty is the Problem

The way Ossoff spoke in his last campaign, opening shuttered hospitals is so simple that he should have reopened nine by now. Instead, he has honed his messaging for this campaign, promising nothing, and still talking about the wrong problem. 

"I would think we could unite the country behind opening more clinics and hospitals rather than closing them," Ossoff stated the obvious in a recent speech his campaign highlighted in social media. "I mean, this is the richest country in the world, and the state of Georgia's lost nine rural hospitals in 15 years. What are we doing here, folks?"

Here comes his plan: 

 "We need to reset our debate on healthcare, take it out of this partisan political space and focus on getting people coverage, making sure providers are well enough compensated, and opening new facilities." 

Let's decode that. He means we need to change our messaging, give out more free health insurance, pay hospitals more, and someone ought to open some hospitals, but not necessarily him. 

That is not a plan—it is a wish list with no connection to financial reality. Ossoff cannot define the path to better healthcare because he won't address the problem of poverty. 

Medicaid is Not the Answer 

Ossoff cosponsored a failed bill in 2021 to expand Medicaid eligibility to more people. He is still talking today about expanding Medicaid as the solution to Georgia's healthcare woes. 

But as that 2020 Time Magazine article explained, hospitals make profits on private payer insurance which subsidizes the Medicaid patients—they can't get by on Medicaid alone. 

"If a hospital is efficient, it can make money on Medicare, but it usually breaks even," Nancy Kane, then-adjunct professor in the department of health policy and management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health explained in 2020. "The secret to financial success is having privately insured people."

But that is unlikely in places like rural Randolph County, where the median household income is $28,000 according to the U.S. Census—compare that to the U.S. median household income of $84,000. There is a reason corporate healthcare systems are not clamoring to plant a hospital in this depressed market—the numbers don't work.

What is the long-term plan for funding a hospital in Randolph and similar counties? Ossoff is not talking about that. He talks about unrealistic solutions with no details on how to make it happen. 

Ossoff could attract healthcare providers by creating more privately insured citizens, not by adding to the glut of Medicare patients. He could write policies that stimulate the local economy and lift people out of poverty—it is the only sustainable healthcare solution, and it would improve thousands of lives in countless ways. But after nearly six years, voters are still waiting for healthcare, and Ossoff has no new ideas. 

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