Hospitals and a health care workers’ union in New York plan to mount an advertising campaign to defeat spending cuts proposed by President Bush — their first attempt to affect national policy with a strategy they have used statewide. þþOfficials of the union and the hospital association said they would also run ads in New York State attacking Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s proposed medical spending cuts as a danger to the health care system, a tactic they used to great effect against his predecessor, George E. Pataki.þþOn the national level, the officials said the campaign would probably take aim at key members of Congress — those on important committees and those who are likely to be swing votes — with ads in their home districts and in Washington, to persuade them to oppose the president’s cuts.þþThe union, 1199 S.E.I.U. United Healthcare Workers East, and the Greater New York Hospital Association jointly control a $60 million fund, the Health Care Education Project, which they could spend on ads to promote or to assail policies, though by law the money cannot be used for a particular side in political campaigns.þþThe officials said they had not decided when such a campaign would start, or what markets the ads would appear in. And they said they had not decided how much to spend, but some hospital executives in New York said they had heard discussions about an initial commitment of $15 million, with possibly more to follow.þþ“We will do whatever is needed,” said Dennis Rivera, the president of 1199.þþThe hospital association and the union plan to meet on Thursday, along with top officials of 1199’s parent union, the Service Employees International Union, to develop their strategy.þþ“We have to take our case to the court of public opinion that affects both venues,” Washington and Albany, said Kenneth E. Raske, president of the hospital association, which represents nearly all the hospitals and nursing homes in New York City and its suburbs.þþSuch a campaign would be the first real test for Mr. Rivera as he makes the transition to a new post as national chief of health care workers within the service employees’ union, one of the nation’s largest and most politically active unions. þþHe had already planned to help health care companies and unions around the country duplicate what their counterparts have done in New York, uniting employers and workers in raising millions of dollars to turn themselves into political powers. The primary long-term goal, he said, would be to press for health insurance for all.þþBut, at least at first, a national campaign against Mr. Bush’s proposed cuts would rely primarily on New York money, which is already in hand. “It would be fair to say that at the beginning, we will be the seed money for this project,” Mr. Rivera said in an interview. “There are commitments from other employers and labor organizations around the country, but I’m not at liberty to divulge that.”þþThe fund was built over many years, mostly through $5 and $10 monthly deductions from the paychecks of thousands of mostly low-wage workers, as part of a provision in the contracts negotiated by 1199 and the hospitals.þþMillions of dollars from the fund have been spent on ads in New York State several times over the past dozen years to defeat proposed cuts or to win passage of bills in Albany. In a few cases, more than $10 million from the fund was spent on a single campaign over a few months — more than some serious candidates for statewide office spend.þþBut it remains to be seen whether an essentially liberal appeal for government support of health care — especially one emanating from New York — would be as effective in other parts of the country as it has been in New York.þþMr. Spitzer’s proposed budget would reduce state support for hospitals — mostly through Medicaid, the health plan for the poor — by $300 million to $400 million a year. He has also accused hospitals and the union of manipulating the state budget to benefit themselves at the expense of all New Yorkers, leading to some heated exchanges with Mr. Rivera and others.þþThe effect of Mr. Bush’s cuts would be several times as great in New York, possibly more than $1 billion a year when fully carried out, though hospital officials said it was hard to make precise estimates because information from parts of the White House plan had not been released.þþHeading a union local with 275,000 members, Mr. Rivera has become one of the most feared forces in New York politics, and beyond. þþIn addition to the ad fund, 1199 has a political action committee that raises $7 million a year from its members to donate to candidates, a formidable phone bank operation and thousands of experienced campaign volunteers.þþMr. Rivera said he planned to have other union locals and employers create “education funds” through payroll deductions and to have health care workers nationwide raise $20 million a year for political contributions, mostly to federal campaigns.þþ“I will try to reproduce what we do in New York,” he said. “In a short period of time, it will become the largest political action committee in the United States.”þþMr. Rivera repeatedly used the phrase “the Bush-Spitzer cuts,” and said that an essential part of the campaign’s message in New York would link the governor, a Democrat, to the president, a Republican. þþMr. Spitzer released his budget before the federal cuts were announced, and some hospital executives and lawmakers said they hoped that seeing the compounding effect of the two proposals would cause the governor to give some ground.þþMr. Bush called for broad cuts in Medicaid and in Medicare, the health insurance for the elderly and the disabled, both major sources of hospital and nursing home revenue.þþHe also proposed reductions in support for public hospitals and for teaching hospitals that train new doctors in their first years after medical school — cuts that would hit New York much harder than other parts of the country.þþMembers of New York’s Congressional delegation have vowed to fight the president’s plans, but some of those cuts would be made administratively, not as part of a budget that must be passed by Congress. It might also prove easier to find votes from around the country against across-the-board cuts than against reductions that would primarily hurt New York.þþ
Source: NY Times
