A push by the Cuomo administration to allow private investment in two New York State hospitals met an impasse during state budget negotiations last week, with strong opposition from Richard N. Gottfried, the chairman of the State Assembly’s health committee.
In a letter to the editor submitted on Thursday to The New York Times, Assemblyman Gottfried, a Democrat from Manhattan, provided his reasons:
“New York’s laws barring large business corporations from owning hospitals are important. It’s bad enough that distant stockholders control most of our health coverage. They shouldn’t also control health care delivery.
“The proposal in this year’s budget legislation to allow for-profit corporate ownership of two hospitals (one to be in Brooklyn) had no plan for how it might be implemented. Corporate ownership can mean cutting ‘unprofitable’ services and shipping ‘profitable’ services to powerful hospitals in other communities. This is especially true for underserved communities like much of Brooklyn.
“Brooklyn’s hospitals need help. The Health Department should sit down with the Legislature and the affected communities to work out solutions, including ways to bring in capital that do not involve corporate control.â€
In an e-mail, Mr. Gottfried added, “I do hope the executive branch will pull people together on this topic so we can do something this session.â€
