Health professionals know minutes, 60 to be exact, matter following a stroke. For someone struggling to breathe during an asthma attack, or stopping the bleeding after an accident, or consumed by a mental health crisis, seconds matter. Minutes are too long. State Representative Sharon Cooper, R-Marietta, should know this. She’s a registered nurse.
She also has the luxury of living in a metro county with a wealth of hospitals, four to be exact, according to the Cobb County Chamber of Commerce.
Cooper opposes the Affordable Care Act and the expansion of Medicaid funding, a critical financial piece for rural hospitals. Walking lockstep with Gov Deal and fellow state legislator Rep Jason Spencer, Nurse Cooper told WABE in Atlanta, “There are some of those rural hospitals that need to close.”
I guess we’re just spoiled out here in rural Georgia, expecting to have access to an 
emergency room without driving 20+ miles to get care. All 1 Million of us rural Georgians who were cared for in small rural hospitals last year just need to suck it up, buckle up, and floor it.
Who cares how far away the hospital is? It’s only time and miles.