Don't harm all of state's hospitals to protect two

YOUR NOV. 21 editorial "Unkindest cuts in healthcare" succinctly laid out how the governor's recent discretionary cuts adversely target two health systems - Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) and Boston Medical Center (BMC) - that serve the greatest proportion of the uninsured. The cuts as they stand would destabilize these facilities and send unsustainable ripples through the entire healthcare system. You're right.

But asking other hospitals and insurers to cover the $169 million in cuts by assessing them an equal-sized tax apiece? That's unsupportable in this economic crisis, and unfair under any circumstances. All Massachusetts hospitals lost $75 million in Medicaid reimbursement through the so-called 9C cuts. Further, hospitals in Massachusetts have already been assessed an additional $20 million this year to help bail out state programs. Almost 40 percent of our state's hospitals are operating in the red. We can't hobble all hospitals because the state has severely harmed two with its budget cuts.

Congress is debating an economic stimulus package that would raise the amount of federal Medicaid money flowing to states. That relief should be used to restore Medicaid cuts that disproportionately affected hospitals, especially BMC and CHA. If that relief does not pan out, we need to look for a more broad-based solution to support these institutions. That's how to resolve the crisis, not by further harming already fragile hospitals across the Commonwealth.

Lynn Nicholas
President and CEO
Massachusetts Hospital Association
Burlington