BY BILL PARRY
Assemblywoman Catalina
Cruz joined City Council candidate
Shekar Krishnan, union
representatives and members of
the New York State Nurses Association
at Elmhurst Hospital
to protest Governor Andrew
Cuomo’s proposed $600 million
budget cuts to public hospitals.
“Our community suffered so
much during the pandemic. Our
essential and frontline workers
were put in harm’s way every
day. Elmhurst Hospital was
overrun and undersupplied,
and our communities lost so
many loved ones,” Cruz said.
“For the executive branch to
now propose cutting more than
$20 million from Elmhurst Hospital’s
budget is both dangerous
and cruel. These cuts have been
rejected by the Assembly as they
will be fatal to our healthcare
workers and they will be fatal to
the many patients in their care.
Our hospitals need more funding,
not less.”
Krishnan, a community
activist and civil rights lawyer
specializing in fighting housing
discrimination and preventing
community displacement,
co-founded Communities
Resist, a legal services organization
that addresses housing
and racial justice in Queens
and Brooklyn.
“It is unbelievable and irresponsible
that in the midst
of a global pandemic there are
proposals to cut funding for
our public hospitals. Elmhurst
Hospital serves nearly a million
residents and was the
epicenter of the epicenter of
the pandemic,” Krishnan said.
“We cannot stand by and let
our community be deprioritized
and disinvested in again
and again. We demand full
funding for our public hospitals,
expansion of the new York
Cares Act, and greater support
for community-based healthcare
services.”
Nefritte Larkin spoke on
behalf of the New York State
Nursing Association, which
represents more than 9,000
workers in the city’s public
hospital system.
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.4 COM | MARCH 26-APRIL 1, 2021
“We are the frontline workers.
We were here every single
day and we’re still here,” Larkin
said. “For Governor Cuomo
to even suggest that there will
be budget cuts to our safety net
hospitals is a gross insult not
just to the communities of color
but also to the workers.”
The neighborhoods surrounding
Elmhurst Hospital
were ravaged by the pandemic
last spring, especially in the immigrant
areas of Corona, Jackson
Heights and Elmhurst.
“Health disparities and inequities
have existed in our community
for years. I have seen
firsthand the horrific impact
this pandemic had on our community
in Queens,” Make the
Road Action member Aracely
Cantos said. “Many of our community
members contracted the
virus and died or lost their loved
ones. Underfunding of our public
hospital system and the exclusion
of immigrants from health
insurance, have contributed to
Black, brown and immigrant
communities being among the
hardest hit by the pandemic.”
Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz (r.) protests against proposed
budget cuts to Elmhurst Hospital. (Courtesy of Shekar Krishnan)
Cantos added that now is
not the time to slash resources
at public hospitals but expand
them.
“We need to ensure that in
this year’s state budget, indigent
care pool funding is directed to
the true and essential safety net
hospitals and instead the Medicaid
reimbursement rate should
only increase,” Cantos said. “Additionally,
everyone, regardless
of immigration status, deserves
access to health insurance.
The final state budget should
allocate $20 million to provide
temporary health insurance to
low income New Yorkers who
contracted COVID.”
Gerard Cadet of 1199 SEIU
summed it up best.
“Many in the community lost
loved ones. Many of our workers
lost friends. We lost neighbors,”
Cadet said. “We were heroes last
year, we’re heroes this year, and
we will be heroes tomorrow. So
give us the resources we need to
take care of our community.”
Reach reporter Bill Parry by
e-mail at bparry@schnepsmedia.
com or by phone at (718)
260–4538.
Protesters rally against proposed
budget cuts at Elmhurst Hospital
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