New York Daily News Editorial January 16th, 2001:
Albany's Blue Cross Double Cross
When Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield won approval to become a for-profit company, $1 billion
from the stock sale was to be set aside for public health purposes. There were many good
ways the state could have distributed the windfall. It chose a lousy one.
Gov. Pataki, aided and abetted by the Legislature, has pushed through an emergency deal
that will hit New Yorkers in their pocketbooks for years to come. Why? Politics, simple
and not so pure.
Instead of earmarking the bulk of the money for health care for the working poor,
Albany cobbled together a deal to funnel most of it into hospitals and nursing homes
— many of them notoriously inefficient and badly managed. Much of the money will be
passed on as higher wages to the powerful hospital workers union. Just in time for an
election year for all 211 legislators and the governor. How convenient.
It's a direct result of muscle-flexing by Dennis Rivera, head of Local 1199, one of the
most powerful unions in the state. Flexing is part of a labor leader's job. But did Pataki
have to fold like a card table? Yesterday, the governor, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver
and state Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno rushed the package through the Legislature at
the speed of light. It was political pandering at its worst.
You can bet that other big unions will take the cue. If Rivera got $1 billion in this
election year, how much should they ask for? Apparently, if they but ask, they shall
receive.
Directing the lion's share of these funds to the working poor through the state's Child
Health Plus and Family Health Plus programs would have been a better arrangement, giving
more New Yorkers access to quality care through doctors and clinics of their choosing.
This is another infamous Albany one-shot maneuver with no base of future funding.
Pataki's office says the billion will be paid out in thirds over the second, third and
fourth years of the program. After that, the state anticipates conversions of other health
care groups to keep the cash flowing. Anticipation doesn't pay the bills, folks.
The whole thing reeks. In this time of fiscal crisis, a governor elected on his ability
to handle numbers cannot let politics dictate his actions. He knows that setting a higher
cost base for the budget, with no assurance of future funding, doesn't add up. Except in
higher taxes.
After Pataki shepherded the deal through yesterday, he stood on the Capitol steps to
revel in the cheers from gleeful Local 1199 demonstrators. Long live the gov. Until
Election Day, anyway.
Pataki must think that by Election Day, the voters will forget about his betrayal of
public interest. Yo, George. Fuhgeddaboudit.
|
