Former New York Gov. George Pataki (R) is weighing a bid for president in 2012, he said in an interview on ABC's "Top Line" on Monday.
"Just look at the state I ran, sure, we're bankrupt, but California's worse." Dennis Rivera could be his campaign chairman:
Exactly how much damage have Pataki's deals with Rivera done to the state's health-care system? A recent study by the Data Advantage consulting group found that New York's hospitals collectively ring up the second-highest average bills of any state in the nation—$6,204 per hospitalization, or 30 percent above the national mean, even after adjusting for the severity of cases New York hospitals treat
Meanwhile, the state spent $7.4 billion in 1999 on hospitalized Medicaid patients, or $4,180 per patient, compared with $9.2 billion, or just $2,377 per patient, in Texas and California combined.
As costs have soared, the ranks of the uninsured have swelled from 13.5 percent of the state's population in 1990 to 18.5 percent by decade's end.
New York State's health-care-cost explosion has left many individuals unable to afford insurance, and it has made businesses, especially small ones, unable to offer it. The typical family policy offered by small businesses in New York these days costs between $5,000 and $6,000 per year, depending on deductibles.
No wonder that the state's small businesses listed health-care costs as the No. 1 impediment to economic growth in a poll by Rochester's Center for Governmental Research.This from Steve Malanga back in 2001. That family policy now costs New Yorkers $13,164.
http://thedailystar.com/localnews/x1100991885/Bassett-suspends-retirement-contributions
ReplyDeleteAlong the same lines, you may be interested in this recent development at my place of employment. They have unilaterally, as best as I can tell, suspended the retirement benefits of its employees for six months this year. The argument, fewer inpatient admissions, is not true. As a hospitalist I can attest to this fact. Reduced payments from medicare/medicaid is the truth and would hold a bit more credence if the administration wasn't so excited in the passage of PPACA that by design will reduce further those payments.
I am left asking if this this exercise is even legal from a contract law perspective?