NEW INVESTIGATIVE REPORT: How Slick Rick Jackson Gets Rich Off A Broken Health Care System

Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Slick Rick Jackson Gave $35 Million Loan to Hospital At Risk of Closure “With a 14% Interest Rate — That Increases to 19% if Payment is Missed”

Case of Troubled Hospital “Puts a Spotlight on the Magnitude of Rick Jackson’s Influence in the Healthcare Sphere and Raises Questions About What it Could Mean For Georgia to Have a Top Industry Executive Running the State”

ATLANTA — A new investigative report from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution exposes how Slick Rick Jackson gets rich off a broken health care system, and continues to oppose Medicaid expansion that would protect hospitals from closure and lower health care costs for Georgians.

The report details how after an Alabama hospital filed for bankruptcy last year, Jackson gave a predatory $35 million loan to the hospital at risk of closure “with a 14% interest rate — that increases to 19% if payment is missed.” In other words, Jackson is set to make big money if the hospital defaults and is forced to close.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution notes that the hospital’s precarious financial position and possible closure — which Jackson would profit off of — is the result of Alabama's failure to expand Medicaid. As the paper notes, Jackson’s record of personally profiting off of potential hospital closures and lack of Medicaid expansion shines a glaring “spotlight on the magnitude of Rick Jackson’s influence in the healthcare sphere and raises questions” about how he could use the office of governor to continue to rig a broken health care system against Georgians.

“This bombshell report exposes how Rick Jackson personally profits off of a hospital in bankruptcy due to the failure to expand Medicaid," said TaNisha Cameron, Keisha for Governor campaign spokesperson. “It's no wonder Rick Jackson doesn't want to expand Medicaid for Georgians, because he profits off of people’s pain.”

Read Below for Excerpts from the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

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.
His $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.
But even with the influx of Rick Jackson’s cash [...] the fate of Jackson Hospital is uncertain.
At the time Jackson Hospital filed for bankruptcy last year, Rick Jackson’s medical staffing company was the facility’s second-largest creditor with nearly $10 million in unpaid bills. [...]
The situation with the Alabama hospital puts a spotlight on the magnitude of Rick Jackson’s influence in the healthcare sphere and raises questions about what it could mean for Georgia to have a top industry executive running the state.
“The governor can really have a pretty profound impact on the healthcare system,” said Dr. Stephen Patrick, chair of the Department of Health Policy and Management at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health.
While they ultimately need legislative support to push their initiatives across the finish line, Patrick said, the office sets the trajectory for the state on the issue.
“They definitely set the priorities, they set the budget, and they appoint all of the high-level health agency leadership from the Department of Health to who runs Medicaid,” he said.
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.
“My opponent, who has a healthcare company in the state, who received a billion-dollar, no-bid contract for that healthcare company in 2020, does not want to expand Medicaid,” Bottoms told a crowd of supporters at a campaign stop in Brunswick last week. [...]
The situation has also sparked debate about whether the kind of private investment, like Jackson’s massive bailout loan, has a place in healthcare management at all.

###