QoTD: "Curry Favor" Edition

by: Rosi Efthim

Fri Jan 21, 2011 at 01:01:32 PM EST

Weinberg's got big questions for Bayonne Medical Center, who forked over $25,000 to Reform. That sent up red flags for Weinberg, who's a sponsor of a bill (S1468) requiring for-profit hospitals to disclose more info about both their finances and investments. Weinberg told The Jersey Journal (via nj.com) she's not buying the hospital CEO's fish story (given to politickernj) that the $25K was to bolster "public policy that will enhance the ability of hospitals".

Why? Because where does it say that Reform Jersey Now supports health care? Because Reform used its cash to put out robo-calls & mailers against Asw Connie Wagner, who sponsors that hospital tranparency bill in the Assembly? And in a one-hospital town maybe that hospital spending serious coin on a political group, as Wagner points out is worth discussing, particularly for the locals, who don't get much choice of hospital in their time of need, and have to pay what the Medical Center charges as the watch their money go into Christie's privately-controlled fund.

Maybe this is Bayonne Medical Center's real story. Weinberg:

I believe the donation was designed to curry favor with current administration. There was not one mention of health care in Reform Jersey Now's mailings, and not one in its mission statement. The idea that the group had something to do with health care is implausible.

For the record, Bayonne Medical Center's CEO Daniel Kane said he had "no specific comments" on how Reform Jersey Now had supported health care but said Weinberg's allegations are unfounded. Maybe this story would go down better if Reform Jersey Now didn't cloak its activities, or could point to one shred of health care public policy it worked on with Bayonne Medical Center's cash. Maybe people struggling to pay family medical bills there would like to know what the hospital's really buying from Christie's slush fund, as their bills go up.