We Won’t Be Silenced!
Big private hospital networks and out-of-state for-profit healthcare giants are out to silence your voice – and takeover our healthcare system.
The Governor and the Department of Health are trying to water down the Certificate of Need process.
The Certificate of Need process gives communities and caregivers a voice when a hospital wants to buy up other hospitals or clinics, build new facilities, or cut existing services — and it stops big for-profits and bankers from operating hospitals in New York. If these changes pass:
- Private hospitals will close units and cut services for “unprofitable” patients. They’ll shift the burden to public and community hospitals. Nurses will be laid off. Staffing will get worse.
- For-profit hospital chains and private equity firms will come in to New York. The Governor wants to start with for-profit “pilot programs” in Brooklyn and in an unnamed upstate location. They will sacrifice patients for profits.
- Clinics and outpatient facilities will be allowed to operate without any community voice, even if they poach paying patients from safety-net hospitals.
- Our state’s healthcare divide will get worse – especially for working people, people of color, and people in rural areas.
The Healthcare Association of New York State – the union for our bosses – praised the changes. So did North Shore-LIJ. No wonder – their VP of Strategy sits on the committee pushing them! Let’s make our voice heard.
Make your voice heard. This fight is not over yet — far from it. These changes have to be approved by our lawmakers in Albany.
Those lawmakers need to hear from us – sign up for our Nurses Voice Action Team right now!