Public Employee Press

Our troubled public hospitals

HENRY GARRIDO
Executive Director, District Council 37, AFSCME, AFL-CIO

DC 37 members are the backbone of the city's public hospital system. We are dedicated to providing compassionate care to the 1.4 million served annually by the nation's largest municipal public health-care system.

As a union, we aggressively stand up for the rights of members and against workplace abuses.

But at the same time, we have always done whatever we can to help NYC Health + Hospitals, formerly known as the Health and Hospitals Corp., fulfill its mission of caring for the city's neediest residents.

Today, the public hospital system is in big trouble. After years of downsizing and budget cuts, Health + Hospitals still faces a $500 million deficit, which could mushroom significantly in the years ahead.

The problem is, public and non-public safety net hospitals in New York serve a disproportionate number of Medicaid and uninsured patients without anywhere near the appropriate level of funding.

The city's public hospital system cares for nearly 60 percent of all of the uninsured patients in the state, yet only receives a paltry 3 percent of the $3.5 billion that Albany spends annually on hospital care for indigent patients.

The system deserves a fair shot and proper funding, which it would receive if healthcare funding followed patients rather than being determined by a complicated formula that's not tied to direct care.

We believe we can help stop the short-changing of Health + Hospitals, much as we did earlier this year when we worked with community leaders and the city's three troubled library systems to obtain the resources that put the brakes on service cuts and staff reductions.

We support and are fighting for state legislation that would ensure the hospital system receive its fair share of funding.

Since November, we have been meeting with state and local legislators throughout the city's five boroughs, as part of a new grassroots political outreach program of the union.

These meetings give us a great opportunity to discuss our concerns, which include stopping Health + Hospitals's plan to reduce its headcount by 1,000 positions next year, almost all at Kings County and Harlem hospitals.

We encourage you to join our effort to protect jobs and services at Health + Hospitals.

We need to make sure our city's hospitals are properly funded