Health insurance cut off for Brooklyn nurses after hospital missed payments
The dispute comes during one of the worst flu seasons in decades, according to nurses at the rally, who say the situation puts both health care workers and patients at risk.
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Nurses at The Brooklyn Hospital Center rallied Monday, saying the hospital failed to make required payments for their health care and pension benefits, leaving some nurses without health insurance.
The nurses, represented by the New York State Nurses Association, say the hospital stopped making monthly contributions to benefit funds in October, despite agreeing earlier this year to maintain those benefits as part of a contract that helped avert a strike.
As a result, nurses say their health coverage was cut off Sunday.
“We’re upset,” one nurse said at the rally. “We as nurses here are upset.”
NYSNA says the hospital has missed payments for three consecutive months, impacting both health care and pension benefits. Nurses say the loss of coverage affects not only them, but their families.
“We have nurses here who are pregnant,” another nurse said. “We have nurses here who depend on healthcare not just for themselves, but for their families.”
Janelle Mathews, a night nurse who has worked at The Brooklyn Hospital Center for 15 years, says her daughter has severe asthma and relies on daily medication to breathe.
Without insurance, Mathews says the cost of her daughter’s medication is overwhelming.
“One inhaler could cost up to $250,” she said. “So it’s very, very costly.”
The dispute comes during one of the worst flu seasons in decades, according to nurses at the rally, who say the situation puts both health care workers and patients at risk.
Nurses are demanding the hospital immediately resume payments to the benefit funds and reinstate their health care coverage.
“And it’s a shame that we’re providing healthcare to people,” Mathews said. “We’re giving treatments to people, the same treatments that my daughter needs, and I can’t afford it because I don’t have healthcare.”
The Brooklyn Hospital Center did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
