State funding will help save NUMC from closing

In the words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now.” Those words are as true today as they were more than 60 years ago. At this moment, the clock is ticking on a very short window to save Nassau University Medical Center from closing due to a lack of funding. The only thing that can keep the hospital from shutting down is state aid. Now is the time for the state to step in to prevent this from happening.

As an Assembly member whose constituents rely on the hospital for primary, specialty and emergency care, my number one priority is protecting this landmark facility from a health care collapse. So I am issuing a call to action. We don’t need activity. We need action. Activity is the back-and-forth, the finger-pointing, the accusations, the calls for resignations. Action is a swift solution to the perpetual problem at hand.

I have delivered a letter to Gov. Kathy Hochul and James McDonald, the commissioner of the state Department of Health, asking them to act now. In it I made a strong appeal to restore more than $125 million cut from the Nassau Health Care Corporation in the fiscal year 2025 budget. I have urged Hochul and McDonald to establish a budget line that will provide the hospital with the gap funding it needs to continue providing life-saving services to our community.

Safety-net hospitals cannot survive without state aid, yet, yet NHCC has seen dramatic cuts in aid over the past three years. NUMC has the lowest Medicaid reimbursement rates in the state, and suffers significant losses year after year. But that isn’t just happening here on Long Island. Safety-net hospitals from Buffalo to Brooklyn are all facing the same problem, regardless of who is running them. It’s a matter of simple arithmetic, and not just leadership. When you have expenses that exceed revenues, there’s a deficit. The math isn’t math-ing!

We know NUMC provides quality health care to a large number of low-income and working-class patients. Helping people regardless of their ability to pay is what makes the hospital special. This level of compassion for our fellow man, woman and child is imbedded in the hospital’s mission, and it characterizes Long Island as a decent place to live for all.

While the hospital implements needed reforms to improve its fiscal health, we know it won’t happen overnight. In the meantime, we government officials must act with the fierce urgency of now. It is the moral thing to do.

 We must do this now because someone’s grandfather depends on dialysis at the hospital to sustain his life. Someone’s grandmother depends on the care of the designated stroke center because every second counts for stroke victims. We don’t want to turn away firefighter Joe, who goes to Long Island’s only multi-chamber hyperbaric unit after suffering carbon monoxide poisoning in the line of duty.

We don’t want to tell Charles, who was in a serious car accident, that this Level One trauma center is no longer available to help him during his life-or-death emergency. It would be a shame to deny care to 10-year-old Maria because her primary-care doctor is no longer in her community, or the 700 incarcerated people who rely on NUMC for their health care. We simply can’t tell Keisha she can no longer go to the Breast Center for cancer screenings, even though breast cancer runs in her family.

And we would be negligent if 3,600 people lost their jobs when a shutdown could be avoided.

I have been working with all parties involved to determine the best solutions to serve the hospital that has served all of us for nearly 90 years. Let’s think beyond political semantics and look at solutions like urging the governor to adopt a plan to fully fund Medicaid. In addition, I’ll be working to pass the Insurance for All bill so the federal government will help pick up the tab. Local businesses and the community at large depend on us to come together. I believe we can be effective, efficient and human at the same time.
As an elected leader in Nassau County, I will continue to sit at the table and fight for your Long Island.

Taylor Darling represents the 18th Assembly District.