I think the Union should prepare to take serious steps as this affects patient care and our jobs. First we need to get together to have a discussion on how to solve this problem, and ask for a meeting with the Governor, put our cards on the table before him and try to get a peaceful solution that will benefit patient care and save our jobs.NY Sheila Lewis
Retiree
Miramar, FL |
Personally I think all 1199ers should get together and show our strengh once again and rally out side his office building so he can hear us. Loud and clear: no more Medicaid or hospital cuts. Lance Rubin
Transport aide
Peninsula Hospital Center
Far Rockaway, NY |
Let’s keep it real here. We are going to have to have a major league rally cry! We should let our voices be heard starting from Harlem to downtown. In addition, buses to Albany. Let’s get it on! Power to the people. We will not take this lying down. Local politicians: get on board, stop the raid on Medicaid, healthcare with no fear! Michele Rubin
Social worker
RUMC
Staten Island, NY |
We should definitely rally against that. I know that we need our jobs, but there are too many people out there now who don't have medical help because of a lack of insurance. He's got to be out of his mind. Teresa Gattison
Patient financial advior
New York Presbyterian Medical Center
NYC |
Mr. Spitzer has his eyes on the White House. Therefore, he may well be contented with being a one term Governor. But he'll need votes, and old money without votes won't do it. Therefore he needs to play ball with us. Let's blitz his office with e-mails etc. calling on him to reconsider how devastating the loss would have on the health care industry and the poor among us and see by how much he recants. This as a first step would also bring more awareness and focus to the problem. However, this is one issue that we absolutely cannot afford to lose under any circumstances. Ronald Yardon
Dialysis tech
Brooklyn Hospital
Brooklyn, NY |
| I am prepared to do whatever it takes to protect our hospitals and nursing homes. We need to march on the capital and show him how we feel. Toni Panicci
Cook/dietary aide
Guilderland Center Nursing Home
Guilderland Center, NY |
First off, after the last emergency Delegates meeting, when Dennis told us what Spitzer did to him, and how he dissed our union, I told my members not to vote for him, and I didn't. We have to make the public aware of the disaster he will cause with his irresponsible funding cuts. We'll have to lobby our representatives hard to stop him. We'll have to go to Albany again, and this time maybe engage in some civil disobedience to show we are serious.
I am educating my members about the threat Spitzer poses to health care and health care workers. And I am ready, willing and able to do what it takes to stop this dangerous egomaniac from carrying out his draconian cuts. John Rusinko
Maintenance mechanic
Catskill Regional Medical Center
Swan Lake, NY |
The union’s response should be: Hell, no, we are not going to take cuts. The union should fight all cuts, including the Berger commission cuts and closures. The union has allowed and supported the Berger closings and is not fighting for its union members’ jobs. Once the union lays down and accepts cuts for some, then even more cuts will come for all. I personally am doing everything in my power to keep our nursing home from closing due to the Berger report. It would have been nice if our union was fighting for the same thing. We should be one united union, fighting all and any cuts that affect our members, not accepting and supporting some cuts and thinking that there will be no more. The union has broken many strong union hearts by supporting the Berger commission recommendation. It should be members first, politics second. Fight for all and never stop fighting, that is what made us a powerful union. Now were just a pitiful, cowardly union.
Bonnie Brown
Recreation leader
Lakeside Nursing Home
Ithaca, NY |
| I think they should find another way to get the money. We in the healthcare industry are hurting already. I speak for most of the workers. We can't live on what we get now. How are we to survive with another cut in our income? Lynn Finch
Laundry worker
PNRC
Holmes, NY |
| I do not think that this is the right thing to do. It is unfair. They better think from where they can get money without touching Medicaid Ana Cabrera
Home health aide
North General Hospital
NYC |
| We need to let Governor Eliot Spitzer know that the cuts will mean the loss of good patient care and good jobs in New York Gerard Lyons
Housekeeper
Marist College
Poughkeepsie, NY |
| I agree with the governor to cut home care because a lot of people are abusing the system. Some people don't need home care because they have families with a lot of money. Why do home care workers have to work for the minimum wage $7.15 an hour. I think the families of older people can't take care their parrents without using government funds Maria Licet
Home health aide
Premier Home Care
The Bronx, NY |
| Dear Gov. Spitzer, How could you even think of cutting medical services to anyone? This is a time when all union and non-union workers require the basic needs for themselves and their families. I hope and pray that members of your family never have the need for such services. We are hard working people. My brothers and sisters should be allowed the comfort zone of caring for their families and parents. How could you look at your self in the mirror after creating such a gap in services to hard working people. I pray for you and your family, I also pray for all of hard working men and women who must raise a family, or decide should I eat or purchase medication. I pray that is not in our future. Most sincerely, Helena Prisco
Mental health worker
Maimonides Developmental Center
Brooklyn, NY |
| This is outrageous. Sonia Marroquin
Recertification specialist
Beth Abraham Housing
The Bronx, NY |
| As a union member, I feel that we should all unite and protest against this cut by organizing a march to Albany, as well as signed petitions, accompanied by a letter about why this cut will affect hospitals, and any other healthcare institution that accepts Medicaid. Stacey Huxtable
Accounting clerk
Jamaica Hospital
Hicksville, NY |
| Let’s go to Albany in force, with more members than in the Pataki years Walter Michie
Mt. Sinai-Queens
Astoria, NY |
| I is always the less fortunate who suffer, whether it’s the patient with no financial means or the healthcare personnel because we also don’t make big bucks. I do understand that medical costs are rising but it we as humans can’t toss the less fortunate out in the street. We must go to Washington and lobby for more aid for hospitals and also employ insurance companies to assist in this matter too. Patricia Selvaggio
PSA
Long Island Jewish Medical Center
New Hyde Park, NY |
| I believe that Eliot Spitzer is 100 percent wrong with this cut in Medicaid. For every dollar that he is cutting from the Medicaid program, that is one less dollar that the Federal Government will be paying for Medicaid. To me, this is outrageous, and I do not agree with this at all! Governor Spitzer had better re-examine the budget again, and see where there can be other cuts that have to be made, and leave Medicaid alone. Ivy Medina
Home health Aide
Partners In Care
Brooklyn, NY |
Hospitals need better management of the funds they have. Administrators draw large salaries! Many NYC hospitals are suffering from short staff, low staff moral and noncreative management.
The patient population is not declining. Management is failing in the hospitals.Elizabeth Sterrett-Eothstein
Physician assistant
Beth Israel Medical Center
NYC |
| I think we should keep doing what we have been doing since former Governor George Pataki took office. Let’s lobby the legislature as usual. This is the most effective way to win big. Rafael Mendez
Maintenance mechanic
Mt. Sinai Hospital
NYC |
| We should definitely fight the way we know how! But we should also train the Delegates to know how to recognize wasteful spending and fraud in our institutions. We haven’t done this yet. We have had the paid Delegate days for Benefit Fund training for about three years now. We really need to concentrate on saving money because it will not be available to us the way it has in the past with Spitzer and his cronies in office. Dana Davis
Engineer
Southampton Hospital
Southampton, NY |
| I am a registered nurse in a city hospital where most of the patients we serve are on some form of social services. I know, as a informed healthcare worker, that my hospital is greatly dependent on Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. I think it is an attack on hardworking nurses and healthcare workers and these cuts will jeopardize lives. This will certainly not help the nursing shortage nor will it encourage people to enter into the healthcare profession. Linda Shamrock
RN
Niagara Falls Memorial Hospital
Niagara Falls, NY |
I do not mind if hospitals are being closed because of the low patient census, as long as it's guaranteed that the employees will be taken care of at another facility and as long as they can keep their seniority. I just do not agree with the closing of nursing homes, cutting down homecare and cutting down Medicaid. There are lots of people who do need medical and financial attention and their only resource and hope is the government. They depend on the government. It would be a shame for the government to turn its back on the sick and the needy. Let us take care of our people, please!
Shirlina Sdikromo|
LPN
St. Barnabas Nursing Home
The Bronx, NY |
| An alternative to 40,000 Purple People on one day: What about 40-100 a day for several months? The Governor says he can ignore our postcards. Let's see if he can ignore our faces on a daily basis. Marty Liquori
Electrician
Crouse Hospital
Syracuse, NY |
| Another rally April 1st. I don't care if Spitzer hates it too. United we stand in solidarity. Pamela Adanti
Dietary aide/relief cook
Bertrand Chaffee Hospital/Jenny B. Nursing Home
Springville, NY |
| This cut is outrageous! I work at a mental health center and the people truly need the services that Interfaith offers. Our leader's goals should be to prevent loss of lives and not try to end them. This cut will not only hurt 1199 workers but also the large numbers of patients who are in desperate need of health care. Jedida Perrier
Secretary
Interfaith Medical Center
Brooklyn, NY |
| By cutting $1.3 billion dollars in Medicaid funding, Gov Spitzer is attacking our poor and elderly. These are the people who need help the most in our society. Spitzer sees them as an easy target, giving little or no resistance. They have no money and no voice. 1199 will not allow this to happen. We will unite and speak up for their rights. 46.6 million people in the US are currently without health insurance. This has reached an all time high. By cutting Medicaid funding this number will no doubt increase. As a result there will be a rise in costly ER visits, hospitalizations, chronic illnesses, and premature death. The end result will be a much larger financial burden on our economy. I firmly believe that prevention is better than cure. We as a union will not stand idly by and allow this to happen. We will unite and be one strong voice for the poor and elderly that are being unjustly targeted by Gov. Spitzer. Sybilla Daniel-Douglas
RN
Brookdale Hospital
Brooklyn, NY |
Governor Spitzer’s proposal to cut back Medicaid is devastating. Realistically, this will cause more problems for the city financially, besides placing increasing hardships on its neediest population. Preventive medicine, which has been practiced in European countries for a long time, has been seriously missing in the United States. The highest incidence of asthma, heart disease, kidney ailments, and hypertension, to list a few, are found in our most depressed areas. This is one of the major causes for the escalation of costs in healthcare. Besides this, the exorbitant cost of medications has become overwhelming. We need financial aid and knowledgeable workers in nursing homes, hospitals, and homecare.
Anita Stillman
Retired RN
Beth Israel Medical Center
NYC |
