According to a local government official in New York, the answer is: NO!
In Suffolk County on Long Island, County Executive Steve Levy, a Democrat, has earned the reputation over the years as being frugal with taxpayer dollars. That’s pretty rare for either Democrats or Republicans in New York. Levy has proposed privatizing the county-owned nursing home, and faced opposition from both sides of the political aisle.
Note a few points Levy made in an August 31 letter to the editor in Newsday:
• “Suffolk County can provide the same service to its 238 nursing home patients and save taxpayers $15 million annually, but only if the legislature would allow for a local hospital to assume ownership. There is only one reason this proposal has been stalled - resistance from the union and the legislators who kowtow to them.”
• “In 1880, when the county opened an infirmary, there were no private facilities and no Medicaid. Today there are 43 private nursing homes in Suffolk, with more than 500 empty beds, that would aggressively compete for our Medicaid-eligible patients.”
• “All 44 county-owned nursing homes in New York lose money. They are so obsolete that the state is offering incentives to counties to privatize. Four have recently done so. Moreover, the state will not approve closure unless every patient is guaranteed continuity of care. A recent report concluded that even if a new manager was hired, all beds were filled, and 50 employees were laid off, our nursing home would still lose $10 million-plus annually, because the public sector employee contract is much more lucrative than the private sector's. This pattern has Suffolk on course to lose up to $50 million over the next three years ...”
Privatization looks like a no-brainer – unless you’re a politician pandering to labor unions.
Raymond J. Keating
Chief Economist
Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council
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