A local official's suggestion to fund healthcare with sales tax is generating buzz about Atlanta's spending on hospitals, The Atlanta-Journal Constitution reported April 10.
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.
Mr. Ellis sponsored a resolution asserting a 1 cent sales tax would says it would garner $363 million per year for the city's hospitals. His proposal was put on hold April 12 but has prompted discussions about healthcare spending — especially in a post-AMC era.
"I just think it's time to open up that conversation," Mr. Ellis said. "I think it's a more practical means than looking at additional millage rates on our property tax base to fund such things."