BROOKLYN, May 26 — Nurses, maintenance staff and clerical workers occupied the lobby of the Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center. These workers are Fighting against a pattern of racist hospital closures and cutbacks affecting workers in nearly 500 hospitals. The 3,500 workers in this hospital in the Brownsville neighborhood have lost their health insurance coverage because Brookdale has fallen behind in paying $23 million to their benefits fund.
The Brookdale administration claims that it fell behind on payments over the past six months due to its well-publicized financial struggles. But apparently the hospital’s parent company, MediSys Health Systems, had enough money to bribe State Senator Carl Kruger and Assemblyman William F. Boyd, Jr.
In March, federal prosecutors unveiled a criminal case against CEO David F. Rosen, who received millions of dollars in state and city grants and other favors in exchange for giving the politicians fake but well-paid “consulting” jobs. MediSys is also the parent of Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, another major hospital close to bankruptcy. This obscene corruption is nothing new under capitalism, and will remain the norm until workers remove profits from healthcare entirely by smashing it with communist revolution. The fight-back at Brookdale can be one step in that direction.
Brownsville is one of New York City’s poorest neighborhoods, and is 96% black and Latino. For insurance, the community relies primarily on Medicaid, which was cut this April by $2.8 billion. According to a May 2010 study by the Fiscal Policy Institute, unemployment here is 15% to 20%, or about twice the city’s 9.2% average.This excludes from the unemployment rate : the overworked, underpaid, and job-hunters, and those who’ve given up.
The infant mortality rate is on par with Mexico’s — at 16.7 deaths per 1,000 live births — whereas the U.S. national average is 6.3 deaths per 1,000 births. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, only 32% of the population has a high school diploma, and the neighborhood contains the highest concentration of public housing projects in the United States.
In addition, Brownsville residents suffer epidemic proportions of chronic, racism-induced conditions like hypertension, asthma, diabetes, and obesity, more than double the rate of white workers just a few miles away in Long Island.
As they face the brunt of the current economic crisis, black and Latino workers depend on Brookdale as the sole provider of health care in the entire community. Now the hospital’s bosses, after receiving millions of dollars in political favors, cry that they’re too poor to insure their own workers.
In a city where eight hospitals have shut down in the past five years, these racist attacks on Brookdale Hospital workers and the community of Brownsville are being done deliberately to increase profits. (See box.) But since healthcare costs continue to spiral as more workers suffer capitalist-induced diseases, workers are forced to swallow the bitter pill of worse care in fewer available hospitals and clinics At the same time, healthcare providers’ wages and benefits are driven down. The Brookdale bosses demonstrate that healthcare under capitalism — whether it’s labeled “Obamacare,” “single-payer,” “non-profit,” or “for-profit”— will always fail the working class and unleash racist misery, especially on black and Latino workers.
The union representing these workers, Local 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, is no friend of those it claims to serve. While trumpeting its legal victory for the occupation after Brookdale attempted to get a court injunction, 1199 has followed the footsteps of the UAW for years, negotiating wage-cut contracts while refusing to mobilize its more than 260,000 mostly black and Latino members in the city againsts a single hospital closure.
Instead of relying on union misleaders, our PLP club is mobilizing its members and CHALLENGE readers within 1199 SEIU and the hospitals and communities. We’re working to support an informational picket in front of Brookdale Hospital on June 15. By making contacts and distributing CHALLENGE, we plan to help fan the flames of anti-racism in this fight-back and continue strengthening our growing work in area hospitals and communities. We encourage all Party members and friends to distribute CHALLENGEs and join us on June 15!J
The Reality Behind the ‘Non-profit’ Hospital
Many hospitals in the United States refer to themselves as “non-profit,” or (in an an older term) “voluntary non-profit.” They are, however, just as profit-driven as their “for-profit” counterparts. The biggest difference is that “for-profit” hospitals pay taxes while “non-profit” hospitals do not because they supposedly perform a “community benefit.” According to a March 12, 2007 article in the Fort Wayne (Indiana) Journal-Gazette:
“…some of the things that non-profits count as community benefit are things that for-profit [hospitals] consider the cost of doing business...”
“A non-profit tax expert [says]... there is no standard for what constitutes a ‘community benefit.’ That allows nonprofit hospitals to set their own rules.”
“This core myth that non-profits exist to serve the poor was never true. ...it was never the historic reason for it... they’re not required to serve the poor, they’re not required to lose money, [and] they’re not required to underpay their employees.”