BP MARKOWITZ STATEMENT ON BERGER COMMISSION REPORT

"I thank and commend the Berger Commission for its efforts to align New York’s health services with community needs and to reduce Medicaid costs.

I recognize that in some cases, consolidation of services is required to achieve better efficiency. However, the commission’s findings regarding Brooklyn, including the recommendation to close Victory Memorial Hospital in Bay Ridge and combine services at Community Hospital in Midwood with Methodist Hospital in Park Slope, will be problematic for Brooklyn unless we can ensure that the medical needs of our residents are met in the future.

The health-care climate in Brooklyn currently amounts to a medical emergency. Brooklynites suffer disproportionate rates of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, to name just a few. Too many of our residents lack access to affordable, quality medical care and health insurance; our health care providers need quicker and more adequate reimbursement by profitable insurers; and for far too many families, the hospital emergency room must function as the family doctor. In light of this sprawling range of health-related issues infecting broad swaths of Brooklyn’s population, the commission’s recommendation to close and merge hospitals because of underutilization seems like a misdiagnosis.

Empty hospital beds can indicate population changes. But in Brooklyn, which has one of the densest and most medically underserved populations in New York State, empty beds are often symptomatic of the fact that our less affluent residents can’t afford the care they need or don’t have access to the screenings and primary care that would result in necessary in-patient procedures.

Simply closing and merging hospitals in Brooklyn is like putting a Band-Aid on a cancer. For Brooklyn, the solution is not only to ‘right-size’ hospital capacity. It’s developing the right strategy to comprehensively address the root causes of right-sizing, not just the symptoms.

A coordinated and comprehensive health care agenda for Brooklyn must assess efficiency as well as issues of equality, access, and participation. It must encourage public, private, and community partnerships, consider ways to make health care more affordable to our neediest residents, ‘right-size’ Medicaid reimbursements to hospitals with a high percentage of uninsured patients, and invest in innovative community-based health services to make them more efficient and effective.

Whether at the state, local, or national level, especially with the incoming wave of newly-elected Democrats, we can and must do more for Brooklyn. And it is my hope that in the days to come our reforms will make Brooklyn’s neighborhoods a model for world-class health care—not a symbol of sickness, but a picture of health.

My office will be hosting a public hearing on the report’s impacts on Brooklyn at Borough Hall on Thursday, December 7. Please visit www.brooklyn-usa.org for details.”

—Borough President Marty Markowitz