Critics make their case against 'safety net' hospital

Not everyone embraces the idea of a "safety net" hospital such as Nassau University Medical Center.

Some critics charge taxpayers should not pay for free health care to the uninsured and / or undocumented, especially given the difficulty more Americans have meeting the rising cost of insurance.

Michael Cannon, director of health policy studies at the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, D.C., said providing free health care raises what he called "the Good Samaritan's dilemma": The more you give people, the less they rely on themselves.

He said he favored private charity care, which he said is more cost-efficient than large government bureaucracies.

People "get annoyed," said Patrick Nicolosi, president of the Elmont East End Civic Association. "They see that the people who are getting it [health care] for free are getting better services than those who have insurance."

He said he believed stanching the flow of undocumented immigrants would help.

Dr. David Gratzer, a practicing physician and senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute, said he believed in "the concept of a safety net."

But, he said, "we spend much on the safety net and don't get much in return." He favors turning over federal health-care dollars to the states to encourage more experimentation. "It's like welfare reform," he said. "There isn't one model."