Atlanta Journal-Constitution Investigation Exposes How Slick Rick Jackson Cashes In On Hospital Bankruptcies and Failure to Expand Medicaid

Atlanta Journal-Constitution Investigation Exposes How Slick Rick Jackson Cashes In On Hospital Bankruptcies and Failure to Expand Medicaid

New investigative reporting from the Atlanta Journal-Constitutionreveals how Rick Jackson stands to profit from a broken health care system - as he gives predatory loans to a bankrupt hospital and seeks to profit off of its failure.

According to the report, after an Alabama hospital filed for bankruptcy last year, Jackson provided a $35 million loan "with a 14% interest rate - that increases to 19% if payment is missed." Under those terms, Jackson is set to make a lot of money if the hospital fails. The AJC also details that the financial struggles of the Alabama hospital are borne from Alabama's refusal to expand Medicaid and Donald Trump's budget law - positions that Jackson strongly backs.

In other words, Jackson gets richer when the health care system fails patients.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Why Rick Jackson poured millions into a failing Alabama hospital

• Leaders of the nonprofit hospital in Alabama's capital blamed its collapse on financial pressures, including mounting debt, staffing shortages and Alabama's refusal to expand Medicaid that would cover more of the state's uninsured.
• That's when Rick Jackson's investment group offered […] a $35 million loan that gives Jackson's company close control over the hospital and puts him first in line to be repaid.
• Like Georgia, Alabama has experienced a steady stream of hospital closures over the past decade, many of them in rural communities - though not all. The impact of Jackson Hospital's potential closure could be compared to the loss of the Atlanta Medical Center in 2022, after which the city's other facilities shouldered the burden of caring for its patients.
• Both states already have high rates of uninsured residents, and those numbers are expected to continue to increase drastically following Congress' decision to end federal pandemic-era subsidies under the Affordable Care Act.
• "We have had a solution for a long time, just like Georgia has," said Hyden. "States who have expanded Medicaid have experienced many fewer hospital closures by tremendous degree."
• But if elected, Rick Jackson says he would follow a line of Republican governors who are opposed to expansion in favor of programs with work requirements and federal grants to help ease the state's healthcare woes.
• Rick Jackson's Democratic opponent, former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, is campaigning on the promise to push for Medicaid expansion - and the Republican's healthcare fortune is at the center of the Democrat's attack lines.
• [Jackson's] $35 million loan to the hospital comes with a 14% interest rate - that increases to 19% if payment is missed. The hospital also agreed to pay millions in other fees.
• Experts are also warning that the strain on struggling hospitals across the country like Jackson Hospital in Montgomery is only going to worsen after Congress cut Medicaid spending in the "Big, Beautiful Bill."
• According to KFF, an independent health policy research organization, the bill is expected to cut Medicaid spending by $911 billion over the next decade.
• In Georgia, that could mean anywhere from $6 billion to $10 billion less in Medicaid funds.

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