The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia House speaker appoints panel on access to health care
Citizens, lawmakers will examine asthma, obesity issues in state.
Georgia House Speaker David Ralston has appointed a committee to examine access to health care. They include high-ranking members of the House and wellknown medical professionals with public experience on issues that have plagued Georgians.
The citizen members are all medical professionals:
■ Dr. Gregory Felzien, an internist and specialist in HIV
■ Dr. Yolanda Graham, a child psychiatrist specializing in sexually exploited children
■ Karen Sicard, a respiratory care therapist
■ Dr. Steve Walsh, an anesthesiologist
The House members are:
■ Rep. Karen Bennett, D-Stone Mountain
■ Rep. Sharon Cooper, R-Marietta ■ Rep. Lee Hawkins, R-Gainesville
■ Rep. Rick Jasperse, R-Jasper
■ Rep. Betty Price, R-Roswell Cooper will serve as chairwoman of the committee.
The committee was created to “examine public policy related to the quality and availability of health care in Georgia for a broad range of medical conditions.”
The legislation creating the committee, House Resolution 240, called out issues including obesity and asthma.
It noted that “disparities in health outcomes are increasingly costly to the state, financially and socially, but are in large part preventable.”
Some of the medical professionals on the committee also have lobbied government on issues. One such issue is Certificate of Need, the regulation that restricts how private companies can cherry-pick the profitable functions of hospitals to open up new businesses and compete with those hospitals, a great concern to rural hospitals.