Health bill includes SUNY

The multimillion dollar health care package worked out between the governor and Legislature just before the release of the Executive Budget proposal includes more than $92 million for SUNY’s health science centers.

This is in addition to the more than $90 million included in the governor’s spending plan to address the long-standing structural deficit at the University hospitals.

Under terms of the Health Care Reform Act (HCRA), the three SUNY hospitals at Brooklyn, Stony Brook and Syracuse will receive $61.5 million for operating needs and another $30.9 million, over three years, for employee training and other staffing expenditures.

The breakdown: Downstate Medical Center (Brooklyn), $35.3 million; Stony Brook Health Sciences Center, $33.1 million; and Upstate Medical University (Syracuse), $24 million.

UUP President Scheuerman said the HCRA bill was originally intended to address only private-sector health care issues. But he credited UUP Treasurer Rowena Blackman-Stroud and her chapter at Brooklyn — in conjunction with lobbying efforts by NYSUT — for ensuring that the SUNY hospitals were also included.

“This doesn’t completely solve our hospitals’ fiscal problems but it’s a major step in the right direction,” Scheuerman said. “We are hopeful that the state is on the verge of resolving these deficit issues — issues it created.”

— Frank Maurizio