Here is the GHN list of the Top 10 stories in Georgia health care in 2012.

Disagree with our choices? Let us know with a comment or email.

10. Grover Norquist’s letter to lawmakers on the Georgia provider fee.

The national anti-tax leader stirred up the debate on the hospital fee before the 2013 General Assembly session.

 9.  Consolidation continues among hospital systems and insurers.

Examples of the cost-cutting combinations were WellPoint buying Amerigroup, Mayo Clinic taking over a Waycross hospital, and Emory partnering with Southern Regional.

 8. Gov. Nathan Deal announces a public-private partnership to fight obesity.

Georgia’s rate of child obesity is the second-highest in the nation.

7. The U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments against Phoebe Putney’s merger with Palmyra.

The FTC challenges the Albany deal, saying it will lead to a monopoly and higher prices.

6. Baxter International announces it will build a manufacturing facility in Georgia.

The biopharmaceutical plant will bring 1,500 jobs to Stanton Springs.

5. A young Snellville woman survives a battle with a rare flesh-eating bacteria.

Doctors gave a grim prognosis for Aimee Copeland, 24, who lost parts of limbs, but her courage made her a national inspiration.

4. Piedmont Healthcare and WellStar Health System form an alliance.

The metro Atlanta hospital superpowers announce they will create a health insurance plan.

3. Two famous Georgia centenarians die.

Besse Cooper, 116, was listed as the world’s oldest person; Leila Denmark, 114, was a renowned  pediatrician and author.

2. Gov. Nathan Deal’s makes his choices under the Affordable Care Act.

The governor declines to build a state insurance exchange, and rejects expanding Medicaid as it’s currently outlined.

1. The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the Affordable Care Act, which Georgia and several other states had fought.

In a surprising ruling, the justices say the 2010 health reform law’s individual mandate is constitutional, but they put the choice on Medicaid expansion back in the hands of the states. (With President Barack Obama’s re-election, the law is safe from repeal and will go forward.)