Thread: NJ: Closing hospitals because of Illegal Aliens

I think stories like these are going to be really shocking NJ. My first son was born at this hospital, and I cannot believe they are closing their doors. They claim part of the reason is undocument patients!

This is quite alarming.

Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center shutting its doors

by Mariam Jukaku and Angela Stewart/The Star-Ledger
Saturday February 23, 2008, 4:15 PM

Frank Conlon/The Star-Ledger

The main entrance at Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center in Plainfield.Faced with mounting deficits caused mainly by insufficient state aid to cover all its uninsured patients, officials at Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center in Plainfield plan to close the 130-year-old facility later this year.

The hospital plans to file formal papers with the state Department of Health and Senior Services on March 1 seeking the closure. If approved, programs and services will be phased out during a "wind down" period before Muhlenberg finally stops admitting patients, officials said Friday.

The decision to close the 396-bed Plainfield hospital was a "last resort" after an attempt to find a buyer failed, said John P. McGee, president and CEO of Solaris Health System, which owns the hospital. Muhlenberg, which also has 1,100 employees and 350 affiliated physicians, was put up for sale last November. Officials say they reached out to more than 60 potential buyers.

McGee said one reason for the lack of interest is economics: Muhlenberg will likely show a loss of $18 million for 2007.

The hospital - whose emer gency room treats 35,000 patients a year - doled out some $15.4 million in uncompensated care last year, but received only $6.2 million from the state in charity care funding, spokesman Steven Weiss said.

Muhlenberg has also been treating a growing number of uninsured patients as well as undocumented patients, most of whom are not insured and do not qualify for charity care, he said.

Once it closes, the hospital plans to maintain, at least temporarily, a satellite emergency room with limited services. Plans also call for the nursing school to re main open, although some change in accreditation will be required.

A home care service the hospital jointly operates with its sister facility, JFK Medical Center in Edison, will continue to function. Muhlenberg merged with JFK in 1997 to form the Solaris Health System.

Read more in Saturday's Star-Ledger.


COMMENTS (41)Post a comment
Posted by ironbound1 on 02/23/08 at 10:30AM

I can only wonder who the majority of the uninsured are. How many Hospitals need to close before we wake up America?
Inappropriate? Alert us. Post a commentPosted by mom07002 on 02/23/08 at 10:36AM

How many hospitals are going to close under Corzine's rule???




http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/0 ... al_ce.html



related article:

This hospital is 130 years old.

http://www.nj.com/starledger/stories/in ... xml&coll=1

Tey will get more tax money and keeo it open

NEWARK PROTESTING ST. JAMES and COLUMBUS HOSPITALS IN THE SAME SITUATION.

http://www.nj.com/starledger/stories/in ... xml&coll=1


http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2008/0 ... _serv.html

I would think that "undocumented" and "uninsured" are essentially the same thing. Althought there are a number of American citizens uninsured, ALL illegal aliens are uninsured.

I was very depressed when I found out too, though it was inevitable...For I was born there, and my two kids also. So now the 'parasites' will mossy on down to JFK in Edison & Robert Woods in New Brunswick, and finish off those hospitals as well. Then what?
Corzine, heh, Corzine couldn't give a rats behind about anything in this state. We write to him frequently, demanding that he stop the sanctuary funding for obvious reasons, with no response. He doesn't care. Then he has the nerve to cry about the state's budget and expect us taxpayers to pay for that too... I am so sick of this BS.

every time a community hospital closes like this, the safety, health and welfare of the entire community is at risk. That means ER visits are farther away, time is precious in a real emergency. That means longer waits at other ER's. and hundreds of jobs lost in the community. We can thank the illegal immigrants and their clueless advocates for that.

every time a community hospital closes like this, the safety, health and welfare of the entire community is at risk. That means ER visits are farther away, time is precious in a real emergency. That means longer waits at other ER's. and hundreds of jobs lost in the community. We can thank the illegal immigrants and their clueless advocates for that.

Very good points legalatina!

Once again, the lives of innocent American Citizens are being endangered either directly or indirectly by the actions of the illegal invaders, and the apathy of our elected officials.

Can anyone in New Jersey do a search to see how many hospitals have closed in that state?

I think the survey that Chosen's friend has out there might be interested in doing a segment in his immigration movie about it. I would like to see a list of hospitals that have closed in each state because of this.

Let's get facts and stats in a movie that we can get on TV.

Here is an article I found on Google:

This is just one segment of the article:

Princeton University economist Uwe Reinhardt said the state's failure to pay its share of health costs is a key reason why a "large number" of the state's 78 hospitals are in poor financial health.

Reinhardt heads the 13-member New Jersey Commission on Rationalizing Health Care Resources, which released its long-awaited report yesterday. Gov. Corzine had charged the commission with helping New Jersey leaders decide which financially troubled hospitals to shore up.

The commission said many hospitals are also in trouble because more than a million New Jersey residents lack health insurance and because of the flawed financial relationship between independent doctors and hospitals, inadequate data on cost and performance, and large numbers of excess hospital beds, especially in North Jersey.

Fifteen hospitals have closed in the last decade. Five have filed for bankruptcy since July 2006. On average, hospitals in New Jersey had operating margins of about 1 percent in 2005, compared with 3 percent nationally.

"Based on the current financial picture, the residents of New Jersey should expect a wave of additional hospitals that will face financial distress in the next few years," the report says



http://www.philly.com/inquirer/home_reg ... risis.html

I may make a lot of folks angry---but--NJ deserves everything that happens to it. The state is and has been a hotbed of liberal taxation since I can remember.
Do you folks up there remember Jim Florio??? When he was elected Governor (and I , a staunch Republican voted for him (a Dem)), He did the "read my lips. no new taxes" spiel while running. One week into his reign and he published the new sales tax setup. It taxed "EVERYTHING". Ther was a national magazine article on how senior citizens were buying cases of toilet paper before the tax went into effect. I was one of the lucky ones, I was able to get a transfer down south on my job and never looked back.

PS _I don't know if this softens my comment, but we ALL deserve what we get==we keep reelecting liars and thieves.