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University of Wisconsin–Madison
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty

ACA and Safety Net Hospitals

Some public hospitals win, others lose with Obamacare, Reuters, July 23, 2015, NBC News: “A year and a half after the Affordable Care Act brought widespread reforms to the U.S. healthcare system, Chicago’s Cook County Health & Hospitals System has made its first profit in 180 years.  Seven hundred miles south, the fortunes of Atlanta’s primary public hospital, Grady Health System, haven’t improved, and it remains as dependent as ever on philanthropy and county funding to stay afloat.  The disparity between the two ‘safety net’ hospitals, both of which serve a disproportionate share of their communities’ poorest patients, illustrates a growing divide nationwide…”