Gov. Spitzer has, apparently, tired of yelling at Shelly Silver, Tom DiNapoli and whichever obscure Assemblyperson comes to mind on a given day, and moved on to a new target: Hospital Executives.
One day after SEIU 1199, the health care workers union, and the Greater New York Hospital Association launched an ad campaign attacking Spitzer's proposed cuts in health spending, the Gov taped a Gabe Pressman/WNBC Sunday show appearance (transcript here), and quickly dashed any notion that we are in for a scholarly discussion of reimbursement rates and trend factors.
Try a little demagoguery, instead:
SPITZER: "They're not big cuts. One hospital alone, it's a big hospital chain, I think $24 million in what they will lose in revenue, money we can then use to insure kids, use to provide better care for seniors. The top three executives at that hospital alone are paid $12 million."
PRESSMAN: "Which hospital is that?"
SPITZER: "You know, I don't want to start tarring great hospitals with that, but the one hospital alone, the top three executives are paid 12 million bucks, and that is most of what we're seeking to eliminate. This is public money. So what we're doing is reasoned, smart, thoughtful and methodical. Those who want to maintain the status quo, of course, oppose it."
Spitzer's description, by the way, seems to fit NY-Presbyterian, based on compensation for its top three execs reported in its IRS 990. And here's the response, received just now, from GNYHA, which wants the Gov to take money from HMOs and drug companies instead of hospitals and their workers:
"Gov. Spitzer’s proposal to cut more than $1 billion from health care has nothing to do with curbing executive salaries. If Gov. Spitzer were truly interested in targeting executive salaries, his budget would go after New York HMOs, which earn $5 million in profits per day and have amassed over $5 billion in profits over the last five years."
Comments (1)
closing hospitals cuts access as well as costs. There has to be a better way to save money.