Spitzer Says He’s Willing to Close Hospitals to Trim Medical Costs

NY Times ^ | September 8, 2006 | DANNY HAKIM

[neverdem]

BALDWINSVILLE, N.Y., Sept. 7— Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said on Thursday that if elected governor he would close hospitals and drastically cut spending in an effort to restore fiscal discipline to New York State.

Giving his most candid glimpse yet of his plans to put the state’s fiscal house in order, Mr. Spitzer said that to fulfill his pledge to cut property taxes he would have to take aim at the state’s health care system.

“We’re going to take the tough medicine,” he said at a campaign stop in this Syracuse suburb, adding: “I’m saying to folks this isn’t all milk and honey. These are going to be tough decisions. Nobody likes to hear that a hospital is going to close, or a wing of a hospital, or beds are going to be shifted, but that is what we have to do.”

With a few days left before Tuesday’s Democratic primary, Mr. Spitzer is up by more than 50 percentage points in polls pitting him against Thomas R. Suozzi, the Nassau County executive, whose campaign has so deteriorated that campaign officials said on Thursday that they had suspended plans for a final television advertising campaign. The campaign’s assertion that it is running out of money came after it had spent $8.4 million this year, campaign filings showed.

With such a wide lead, Mr. Spitzer increasingly sounded on Thursday like a man looking ahead to governing and preparing voters for the challenges ahead, including making budget cuts to finance his campaign promises.

Much of Mr. Spitzer’s campaign up to now has been spent making costly promises to voters, including cutting property taxes by $6 billion over three years, offering tens of thousands of uninsured children medical care and increasing education spending by billions of dollars.

[neverdem]

Has anyone told the SEIU?

[endthematrix]

Hospitals Worried By Report

http://www.nysun.com/pf.php?id=39289

[goldstategop]

If Spitzer REALLY cuts spending, I will be surprised. Liberals don't cut spending. And I like what I hear about cutting New York's property taxes. But we'll see.

(No more Olmert! No more Kadima! No more Oslo! )

[mo]

yeah..a real "forward thinker" ..."preparing to govern"...next we'll be hearing about all his "growth"

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/2005/02/controlling_health_care_costs_by_controlling_access/

[Jim Noble]

Would closing car dealerships cut the price of cars? Would closing supermarkets cut the price of groceries?

People get what they deserve, and the American people richly deserve the coming collapse of the hospital system. So much concentrated economic illiteracy has never been seen in the world as is now on display in Federal and state "health care" policy.

[anoldafvet]

According to Hillary it would. Most people don't remember her plan to "cut" health care costs by training less doctors. She figured that if you didn't have a doctor to go to, you wouldn't spend money on health care. Seems like the first schools to jump at the "free" money were in New York. I left New York in 1977. The taxes on my house then are still higher than what I pay now.

[Solamente]

[raybbr]

Does Pataki hurt babies? Ads say so ---

As she talks, words materialize ominously on the screen: "Governor Pataki's budget cuts mean hospitals across New York will close."

Four years later, 1199 and the Greater New York Hospital Association are portraying Pataki as Ebenezer Scrooge, pinching shillings by shutting off Tiny Tim's incubator.

Let's see if they attack Spitzer the way the did Pataki.

[Churchjack]

So, closing hospitals thereby reducing supply is gonna cut costs how?

[Kimmers]

Upstate NY is dying. Large corporations have left that state because of taxing and regulations.

[Brilliant]

Someone ought to teach this fool basic economics. You don't reduce costs by eliminating supply. You only drive up the price further.

[Mad Dawg]

So much concentrated economic illiteracy has never been seen in the world as is now on display in Federal and state "health care" policy.

Let the people says; AMEN! NEWSFLASH: Price controls lead to shortages and/or declines in quality. Health Care is NOT a right. I may have a duty before God to provide care for those less fortunate than I, but I certainly don't owe ANYONE a dime just because he's sick.

And more to the point, has ayone noticed how when docs write scrips or order tests the price of the stuff is never discussed? But somebody is paying something. And that means a buying power is being used over HERE which might have been used over THERE. But when it's not discussed that means somebody else is controlling how you allocae your resources.

Land of the free? Home of the brave? Je me demande. (A little French lingo there -- we'd better get used to it if this can happen under Republicans.)

[Gritty]

the American people richly deserve the coming collapse of the hospital system

Jim, you don't understand the logic of Democrats.

While closing the hospitals and axing $6 billion in property taxes, Spitzer promises to give tens of thousands of uninsured children free healthcare. To pay for it, they are going to tax the rich. Or maybe they'll chase after taxpayers like me who fled the State already - just like Kalifornia does.

See how simple it is when you conjure up magic to get votes and implement your political promises?

New Yorkers have been falling for this bunkum for decades. It's unlikely to change until the last one out shuts off the lights.

[BurtSB]

Spitzer is a left wing moron. Hospitals in small towns are the biggest employer next to public schools .Secondly. if a hospital closes then many other businesses close up and leave or never decide to relocate there.There a re large number of small business that are linked to small hospitals to survive. Spitzer and Clinton and Dems in general want to close Small hospitals because there votes come from the idiots in the big cities.When the Clintons left office they left the rural infrastructure of this country in shambles.

[Born Conservative]

He wouldn't be the first Northeast Liberal Governor to do that. Fast Eddie Rendell is on a slash and burn campaign with Medicaid (although most of the cuts he is doing are reasonable, the manner in which he is doing it is inefficient), as well as cutting back state employee's health benefits.

I have an HMO by the same company that administers an HMO for state employees (PEBTF), yet PEBTF will not pay for several vaccines (Prevnar, Influenza, Hep A, Rotavirus, Meningococcal), and parents are getting huge unexpected bills. I didn't get the connection to Rendell until I started seeing his campaign ads about balancing the budget for the past 3 years. Getting back to the vaccines, they are all covered under my plan. I would think that the costs saved even just by Prevnar would justify the cost of the vaccine: much fewer diagnostic workups for fever since implementing the vaccine, as well as the cost to hospitalize a child with pneumococcal meningitis or pneumonia.

[Jim Noble]

much fewer diagnostic workups for fever since implementing the vaccine, as well as the cost to hospitalize a child with pneumococcal meningitis or pneumonia.

This is what's wrong in a nutshell. Prevnar is every bit as good as you say, no question.

So.

WHY THE FU*K WON'T THE PARENTS PAY FOR IT????

They buy narcotics, they buy plasma TVs, they buy new cars, they buy Bratz dolls, they buy whatever, BUT THEY WON'T PAY $260 TO POTENTIALLY SAVE THEIR OWN KID'S LIFE!!!!

In my travel clinic, people who have booked $25 000 safaris walk out when they find out the malaria pills aren't free.

It's absurd, and getting worse fast.

[Born Conservative]

I totally agree.

Prevnar IS a great vaccine. I was just discussing this tonight at work; resistant Pneumoccocal strains are lessening, and we may end up going back to treating ear infections with Sulfa drugs, as well as lowering the dose of Amoxil.