Is there a doctor in the house? The state’s health care system is in need of a thorough examination and course of treatment.

For some hospitals, it is too late. They have closed their doors to patients. Others are in desperate need of a transfusion, a property tax transfusion.

Another hospital in Georgia is having to lean on the taxpayers of the community it serves. The Macon-Bibb Hospital Authority is asking the local government for a chunk of property tax collections.

Like so many other hospitals in the Peach State, Atrium Health Navicent, the hospital the authority oversees, must have tax revenue to defray the rising cost of indigent care. Too many people are unable to pay for the treatment they receive either because they are uninsured or simply too poor.

Tossing a siphoning hose into the local tax base is getting to be a trend in Georgia. If Macon-Bibb County consents to the request, it will become the 14th county in the state to do so. To date, 13 of Georgia’s 159 counties have been asked to contribute to the local health care system.

Georgia allows hospitals to dip into the local tax structure. According to state law, counties can provide up to 7 mills in revenue to the hospital serving the general public.

Fulton and DeKalb counties are an example of this. Both monetarily support Grady Hospital in Atlanta, the sole top-level trauma center in the heavily populated metro area. With the closure of Wellstar Health System, which also served the area, Grady will need more assistance from the two counties. Medical cases that might have been referred to Wellstar now go to Grady. This includes patients who are unable to pay for services rendered.

In this day and age, any hospital is apt to find itself in the same predicament of requiring the assistance of taxpayers to maintain a healthy heartbeat. Costly to property owners, yes, but it beats the alternative. Just like Wellstar, a number have opted to step off that financial tightrope and have shut down all operations.

Georgia can ill-afford to lose more of its hospitals, especially top-level trauma centers like Atrium Health Navicent.

We continue to urge legislators to look into the situation and see what can be done to keep hospitals open and solvent in this state.