From the Times Ledger:The closings of St. John’s and Mary Immaculate hospitals inspired a bill passed by the state Legislature last week that would require the state to hold a hearing about plans to shutter hospitals and issue plans for filling the gap in health care services in affected communities.
Sponsored by Assemblyman Rory Lancman (D-Fresh Meadows) and Sen. Shirley Huntley (D-Jamaica), the state Legislature unanimously passed the Hospital Closure Planning Act last week. Lawmakers will send it to Gov. David Paterson’s desk within the next several weeks, after which he will have 10 days to decide whether or not to sign the bill that borough lawmakers said addresses a need to give the public more of a voice about hospitals slated to be shuttered.
Lancman and Huntley have criticized the state DOH for its response to the closure of St. John’s and Mary Immaculate and said this act will help lay the groundwork for a comprehensive plan to meet New York’s health care needs. The bill would require the state DOH to hold a public forum within 30 days of a hospital closure and issue a plan for addressing the consequence of the loss of health care services.
Paterson had vetoed the Hospital Closure Planning Act in September 2009, but lawmakers said they revamped the bill to address his concerns, including decreasing the number of hearings from two to one.
8 comments:
what is really needed is a honest evaluation of how much taxpayers are paying for the medical care of the estimated 1.5 million illegal aliens and the anchor babies in n.y.c.
is the estimate given recently that the illegal population among us is costing $9.5 billion per year to n.y.c. taxpayers ?
are sanctuary cities across the U.S.A. having hospital closings as well?
why are these cities permitted to break the federal law against protecting these aliens ?
Our market based Health Care system slowly collapsing.
We are now paying for decisions made sixty years ago at the behest of self-interests and bolstered by accusations of "communism".
Sixty-two percent of personal bankruptcies are medical. Great way for a country to treat it's people.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/health-care-reform/2009/06/new_study_shows_medical_bills.html
Read the PDF for the actual study.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/documents/american_journal_of_medicine_09.pdf
Sixty-two percent of personal bankruptcies are medical. Great way for a country to treat it's people.
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We need less people in this country, not more.
If you cant earn enough money to cover your medical costs, and you die off, its a benefit to everyone else.
Not only does that allow for more resources, but the ones who die off are then often the least valuable.
This is too little too late. What will happen in this city when we are attacked by terrorists? What will happen when we experience the next swine flu epidemic? Where will people go to be treated medically? When Obamacare kicks in, watch the doctors leave the profession in droves. We are really screwed. I guess it gives us incentive to stay healthy.
Anonymous said...When Obamacare kicks in, watch the doctors leave the profession in droves"
As usual, an ideologue too anxious to take a swipe at Obama to actually do any research beyond listening to Rash limbaugh etc.
Doctors have been leaving private practice for years now due to huge malpractice costs. We have three doc's living in this building. Two were general MD's who left private practice to work in hospitals and a third is a Psychiatrist who works in a Public Hospital.
There have been numerour articles and TV news stories about how some specialties such as pediatrics are so costly to insure that in some state there almost none in private practice anymore.
Those bastard apologists for the current broken system won't face facts buy you, and I will soon have to...Socialized Medicine and probably rationed care are the only way to prevent this one sector from devouring our economy.
It could have been different had we listened to President Truman (and others since).
If you crack down on illegal immigration and send these people home, there will be plenty of health care to go around and it will be affordable. Illegals are the reason why hospitals are closing. The hospitals just can't afford the huge illegal immigrant population. Taxpayers are tired of paying for them.
thats like passing anti crack legislation after the entire city has become addicted. train left the station already
A large reason these hospitals closed was due to administrators lining their pockets with medicaid money.
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