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Public Employee Press
Fighting Back
Hospital workers battle Pataki's Medicaid cuts
Governor's cuts
could take as much as $60 million from Health and Hospitals Corporation
By ALFREDO ALVARADO
For James Rivera, Bellevue Hospital has been a lifesaver. Six days a week
he comes to the Manhattan hospital for drug counseling and physical therapy.
To receive that treatment he used to travel all the way to Coney Island.
But they closed that program, said Rivera, as he eagerly grabbed
a pen to sign a petition against Governor Patakis proposed Medicaid
cuts. If they close this program where am I supposed to go?
Thousands of New Yorkers covered by Medicaid are asking themselves the
same question.
Gov. Patakis proposed executive budget for 2004-2005 will take at
least $60 million dollars in taxes, shifted costs and Medicaid cuts from
the citys Health and Hospital Corp. The cuts hit hardest at long-term
care facilities like the Coler-Goldwater Specialty Hospital and Nursing
Facility on Roosevelt Island, Dr. Susan Smith McKinney Nursing and Rehabilitation
Center in Brooklyn and Sea View Hospital Nursing and Rehabilitation Center
in Staten Island. The Sea View facility is the only public nursing home
on Staten Island.
Under the Pataki proposal, Coler-Goldwater
could lose as much as $26 million in Medicaid funding. The governor also
proposes to tax hospitals, nursing homes and home care agencies. New
York Citys public hospital system cannot withstand additional taxes
or payment reductions, said DC 37 Executive Director Lillian Roberts
of the governors plan.
These cuts in and of themselves will have a severe impact on the
exemplary services provided by HHC. These are special populations
that need to have services maintained, said Coler-Goldwater Executive
Director Claude Rittman at a breakfast with health care activists, labor
leaders and Bellevue Hospital management. We are the safety net
facilities for this city, and we have to maintain our mission of providing
excellent care.
The Bellevue meeting was held on March 4, which was proclaimed Health
Care Action Day by Jobs with Justice. Hundreds of unions, retiree
organizations and grassroots community groups held events nationwide to
protest cuts in services, raise public awareness about the attacks on
Medicare and Medicaid, and press for a national health insurance plan
with universal coverage.
President Bush recently signed legislation intended to provide a much-needed
Medicare drug benefit. But the plan offers inadequate benefits while it
protects high prescription prices, gives windfall profits to the drug
and insurance industries and opens the door to privatization.
Health Care Action Day
In New York City on March 4, DC 37 activists participated in the nationwide
action by launching an organizing drive at HHC facilities to collect thousands
of signatures on petitions against Patakis proposed cuts.
We are mobilizing our members to make phone calls, sign petitions
and send postcards to state and city leaders urging them to raise revenue
by closing corporate loopholes and reinstituting the stock transfer tax
instead of cutting healthcare and Medicaid, said Ralph Palladino,
2nd vice president of Local 1549 and legislative chair of the Bellevue
Community Advisory Board.
We are also fighting the cuts in coalition with the hospitals
community advisory boards, which include some of our union members, and
explaining the issues to legislators in City Hall and Albany, said
DC 37 Political Director Wanda Williams.
Fifteen-year HHC veteran Necha Sirota is concerned about how the cuts
will affect the quality of patient care. Our caseloads are growing
and theres pressure to reduce the length of stay for some patients,
said the Social Work Supervisor II at Coney Island Hospital. A Local 768
member, she works with many patients who are in crisis and are dangerous
to themselves. If they dont get the good care that we provide
here, theyll be right back at the hospital.
You can help stop the cuts. Call the numbers on the back page of PEP and
ask your elected officials to fight the Medicaid cuts. Use the toll-free
number or the e-mail address provided to send your message right to the
governor.
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