Healthcare Achievements and Welcoming Gary Richardson

When it comes to issues important to Georgians across our great state, healthcare is certainly at the top of the list. Over the past few years, we have made some improvements to healthcare in our state to address issues like maternal mortality, telemedicine, and mental health. But this week, we took a major step forward by passing HB 1339—a transformational piece of legislation that will increase access to affordable, quality healthcare across our state—particularly in our rural communities.

HB 1339 does this in a number of ways. It will allow for more hospitals to be built in rural areas provided they meet certain requirements, such as serving as a teaching hospital with residency slots or be trauma certified—which we believe will greatly help train and keep our medical professionals here in Georgia.  It will help rural hospitals that have closed to reopen more easily. It will increase the number of psychiatric beds to address mental and behavioral health, support birthing centers and OB services to assist with maternal healthcare, and allow healthcare systems to purchase new equipment more easily to stay ahead of the curve and deliver more cutting-edge care. Lastly but importantly, it increases the Georgia HEART rural hospital tax credit from $75 million to $100 million, allowing our rural hospitals to access more capital to keep their doors open and provide care to patients in need.

In total, this is a huge step forward to increase access to healthcare across our state—particularly in our rural communities—and will help Georgians live healthier, longer, and more fulfilling lives.

It has also been a productive week on a number of other fronts. On Wednesday, our newest member Gary Richardson, who will represent Columbia County and parts of Mcduffie County, was sworn in. I’m very proud of the campaign Gary ran, and look forward to working with him to do the people’s business in the House. We also received passage from the Senate on a number of key House priorities, including measures to accelerate the state income tax cut, protecting tenants, immigration enforcement, and paid parental leave. It’s certainly setting up to be an exciting and productive finish to our legislative session next week, and I look forward to finishing strong for the people of District 159 and our entire state.

Congratulating our newest member Gary Richardson and his wife, Ginger, at his swearing in ceremony

Recognizing our tremendous House interns for their hard work throughout session

Thank you for your continued support!

My Best,

Jon Burns