A local official’s suggestion to fund healthcare with sales tax is generating buzz about Atlanta’s spending on hospitals, Becker’s reports.
Bob Ellis, vice chair of the Fulton County (Ga.) Commission, proposed funding healthcare with a county-wide special sales tax to replace the more than $100 million in residents’ property tax that go toward healthcare each year. More than $60 million is used to subsidize Atlanta-based Grady Memorial Hospital.
Grady Memorial — which sports 989 beds — became Atlanta’s only level 1 trauma center after Wellstar shuttered two hospitals in the city last year. Since 1978, the hospital has received nearly $3 billion from Fulton County, according to the report.
Ellis sponsored a resolution asserting a 1-cent sales tax he says would garner $363 million per year for the city’s hospitals. His proposal was put on hold last week but has prompted discussions about healthcare spending. Read more.
