In healthcare, reaching “average” would be a huge win for Georgia. Georgia ranks near the bottom nationally in physicians, registered nurses, and dentists per capita. Organizations with no stake in Georgia politics publish these statistics annually. When it comes to outcomes, the data are equally troubling: Georgia ranks nearly last in the nation in fetal mortality, ahead of only Alabama and Mississippi. The next governor inherits every healthcare challenge on day one.
A WANF poll of Georgia voters found healthcare is a top three issue in this race for Governor. GHEHI saw this as an opportunity to speak with both candidates and get them on the record about physician and nursing shortages, and how they would define and measure progress in office.
In August and September, in partnership with WRDW and Gray Media, GHEHI conducted separate sit-down interviews with Republican Rick Jackson and Democrat Keisha Lance Bottoms. We asked both candidates the same questions. The conversations were aired unedited. Georgians now have a record of the candidates’ answers, in their own words, on one of the most consequential sets of issues the next governor must tackle.
Physician and nurse shortages are a national problem, but Georgia’s numbers are measurably worse than most states, and the pipeline that should help is leaking. Georgia Board of Health Care Workforce statistics show that 66% of Georgia medical school graduates left the state for residency training last year. Research from the Association of American Medical Colleges shows physicians largely practice where they train, which means hundreds of Georgia-educated doctors are building careers and connections somewhere else.
Both candidates were asked directly about this. Jackson focused on expanding residency slots and creating financial incentives such as guaranteed job offers for physicians who complete residency in Georgia, particularly in smaller communities. “We could have twice as many residents,” he said, “if our requirement was that they stayed there afterwards.” Bottoms framed the problem differently, arguing that Georgia’s policy environment (mentioning by name the absence of Medicaid expansion and the six-week abortion ban) is making it harder to recruit and retain physicians who “don’t want to be caught up in the politics of medicine.” Both point to real pressures, but they locate the cause differently.
GHEHI acknowledges that the format limited what could be accomplished. Because the interviews were conducted separately, neither candidate saw the other’s answers. Neither had the opportunity to rebut. GHEHI found that both candidates made claims that held up and some claims that didn’t. To address that, GHEHI is publishing a review of the candidates’ specific points, including what held up under scrutiny, what didn’t, and what couldn’t be confirmed either way. The goal was to give Georgians better tools to evaluate the candidates on solving the healthcare workforce crisis.
In addition, fifteen minutes, while a good start, is not enough time for a subject this important. Both candidates spoke largely in generalities, which is understandable in fifteen minutes but falls short of what Georgia faces, including well-documented workforce shortages (especially in rural medicine), an aging physician and nurse workforce, and the two-thirds of Georgia medical school graduates who leave the state for residency training.
Georgia’s rural physician maldistribution is real and acknowledged by both candidates, though solutions differed sharply. The debate over Medicaid expansion remains a point of difference as it has been for fifteen years, but both candidates mentioned expanding it, albeit in different ways.
GHEHI is grateful to both candidates for participating.
GHEHI is also grateful to WRDW and Gray Media for partnering on production and airtime and for sharing the segments with television markets across Georgia, and to every Georgian who watched.
The record gives Georgians a baseline to measure what was promised against what happens after January, and it tells whoever wins that voters are paying attention.
The full interviews and GHEHI’s candidate review, “What Held Up, What Didn’t,” are available on WRDW’s website.
Laurie Ott is the executive director of the Georgia Higher Education Healthcare Initiative (GHEHI). She can be reached at LOtt@gahehi.org or by cell 706-830-8239.
