Some Hospitals Must Close, Spitzer Asserts

Declaring that some hospitals in New York State must close, a Democratic candidate for governor, Eliot Spitzer, and his running mate, David Paterson, are signaling that they will not be bound by a panel initiated by Governor Pataki to study the issue.Mr. Paterson, the Democratic minority leader of the state Senate, is sponsoring legislation that is intended to scale back the panel’s influence.Yesterday, Mr. Spitzer said that if elected he doesn’t think his administration ought to have to follow the panel’s final recommendations, which are due in December and could become law by the end of the year.The attorney general’s comments about the hospital commission provoked a bitter reaction from one of Mr. Pataki’s top aides, who said Mr. Spitzer had plenty of time to voice his opinion about the governor’s efforts to restructure health care but failed to speak up when it counted.Asked about Mr. Paterson’s bill at a joint campaign event in the Bronx, Mr. Spitzer said,”I would like not to have my hands bound by a report which we have not been able to influence and which would then be passed in the last days and adopted in the last days of the administration that for 11 1/2 years has failed to provide any significant leadership in the area of health care.”[In another development in the race for governor, a Republican source told The New York Sun that a Republican candidate, John Faso, asked the state banking commissioner, Diana Taylor, to be his running mate.The source said Ms.Taylor, who is Mayor Bloomberg’s girlfriend, declined. Mr. Faso would not comment when reached by telephone last night.Instead, Mr. Faso is expected to name the Rockland County executive, C. Scott Vanderhoef, as his choice for lieutentant governor today, sources said late yesterday.The selection of Mr. Vanderhoef would help Mr. Faso compete against William Weld in the New York City suburbs, which often prove crucial in deciding statewide elections.]Mr. Spitzer’s remarks marked the second time in two weeks that he sought to distance himself from one of Mr. Pataki’s major political priorities. In a speech on transportation, the attorney general said he doesn’t share the governor’s enthusiasm about establishing a rail link between Lower Manhattan and Kennedy Airport. Mr. Spitzer said the state first needed to “evaluate the cost of the project, as well as the expected economic benefits.” The speech was first reported by the New York Times.Hospital closings have long been a sensitive issue because the health care workers union, 1199/SEIU, and the hospital industry wield substantial political clout. Just a few weeks ago, the union and the industry spent several million dollars on a television and print advertising campaign denouncing the governor for trimming Medicaid funding for hospitals and nursing homes. The campaign helped contribute to Mr. Pataki’s recent low approval ratings, political observers say.In an effort to restrain Medicaid and other health costs that have soared during his administration and to make the hospital industry more efficient, Mr. Pataki last summer formed the New York State Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century. He tapped investment banker Stephen Berger to be its chairman and appointed many of the commissioners.The commission must submit its recommendations about hospital closures to the governor by December 1. The governor has five days to review its report before sending it to lawmakers. They have until the end of the year to reject the report, and if they do nothing, the recommendations are automatically adopted by the state’s health department.Mr. Paterson’s bill, news of which was first reported by Crain’s New York Business, would push back the deadline to March 1, 2007, when the next governor has assumed office. Under his legislation, the panel’s recommendations would only become law if they are approved by lawmakers within 60 days of receiving the report.“We know that some hospitals are going to have to close,” Mr. Paterson said yesterday. But he said he was concerned that the commission’s goal of making the health care system more efficient would run up against the needs of New Yorkers living in rural and urban communities.Mr. Spitzer said he would wait until the panel submits its report before making a final judgment, but said the governor waited too long before forming the commission, calling the governor’s delay an example of “classic Albany avoidance behavior.”Told of his comments, a spokesman for Mr. Pataki, David Catalfamo, said, “The attorney general had ample opportunity to make his views known on a variety of issues. Why he’s speaking out now, a full year after this legislation was adopted, is beyond me.”

Some Hospitals Must Close, Spitzer Asserts

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