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The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not represent the official position of Working Mass. This article was originally a public statement issued by Mass-Care, the Massachusetts Campaign for Single Payer Health Care. Republished with permission.
By Kimberley Connors
The Boston Globe editorial, “Wanted: local, nonprofit operator for Norwood Hospital” (10/22/24) puts forward a good explanation of why Norwood Hospital should be reopened.
Norwood Hospital was temporarily shut down because of a massive flood, and because of mismanagement by Steward Healthcare, it remains half rebuilt.
The solution is clear. The State should take Norwood Hospital by eminent domain from Medical Properties Trust and run it as a community hospital.
We should have no compunctions about taking the property from MPT as it was Steward Hospital’s partner in mismanagement and corporate greed.
The Constitution of Massachusetts states the purpose of state government:
“The end of the institution, maintenance, and administration of government, is to secure the existence of the body politic, to protect it, and to furnish the individuals who compose it with the power of enjoying in safety and tranquility their natural rights, and the blessings of life.”
Providing health care to Massachusetts residents clearly falls within this opening paragraph of our constitution. Easily accessible good health care is key to providing “safety, tranquility and the blessings of life” for the people of the Commonwealth. Certainly this is justification enough for seizing the property.
Eminent domain is not an unusual or uncommon exercise of a right of a public body. Property is taken for the common good in many circumstances, past and present. Roads, bridges, schools, by cities, towns, and other public bodies are the obvious examples of property taking.
We have learned from the Steward disaster that providing health care via profit making corporations doesn’t work. In 2015 the legislature eased restrictions on privatizing portions of the MBTA; how did that work out? A disaster that the MBTA is still digging itself out from.
But should Norwood Hospital be run by a non-profit corporation?
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the real non-profit corporation. Many of the supposedly “non-profit” corporations that run hospitals in Massachusetts are really just “for profit” entities in disguise.
For example Baystate Health in Western Mass. is a “non-profit” but spends $2.6 million per year on its CEO and has been cutting services in its Franklin County hospital in Greenfield. Patients are forced to drive 40 to 60 miles to Springfield for routine treatment. In 2016 Baystate had $100 million stashed away in offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands.
Can the State run a hospital? Yes, it already does. The Department of Public Health successfully runs four institutions in Massachusetts.
Lemuel Shattuck Hospital, Jamaica Plain, a 225-bed acute care hospital;
Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital for Children, Canton, care to children and young adults with multiple disabilities;
Tewksbury Hospital, Tewksbury, a 370-bed hospital for adults with medical and/or mental illness;
Western Massachusetts Hospital, Westfield, an 87-bed long-term acute care hospital.
Can Massachusetts afford it? While it would cost the State to take the unfinished Norwood Hospital from its current owner, as the Globe points out, Gov. Healey has said, “For too long, MPT has put their greed before the health and well-being of the people of Massachusetts.” The “Rainy Day” Fund of Massachusetts had a balance of $8.831 billion as of August 9, 2024, clearly enough to buy and finish building Norwood Hospital.
As the Globe also says, Norwood Hospital was a profitable operation in the past, another reason for the State to take it over and run it.
Finally we see that health care in general is under significant threat in Massachusetts. We need a fundamental change in how health care is financed and run. There is a bill in the House and Senate, the Massachusetts Medicare for All Bill, which would solve many of the problems of health care in Massachusetts. It would
save billions of dollars by eliminating insurance companies and by negotiating prices with drug companies;
carry out studies of where and what kind of health care is needed by people;
eliminate co-pays and deductibles;
have the power to make sure all residents of Massachusetts have equal access to quality health care.
Ask your Senators and Representatives to sign on to An Act Establishing Medicare for All in Massachusetts.
Contact: Kimberley Connors, Executive Director, Mass-Care, 617-297-8011
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