Ask yourself: Why are voters being asked to authorize the eventual sale of Hazel Hawkins Hospital to a private company in Flint, Mich.? What is the purpose behind this historically drastic move?
If you’re struggling to come up with a logical answer, then you’re not alone because there isn’t one.
This irrational direction by the San Benito Health Care District is a massive, potentially devastating risk, and it comes without any urgency or desperation that would typically drive such a maneuver.
What hospital sale proponents and the private suitors don’t want you to know, as voters prepare to decide on the future of local healthcare, is this: Hazel Hawkins is performing quite well financially as evidenced by the most recent fiscal year report. It shows a year-end surplus of $15.5 million, cash flow of $18.6 million and 93 days of operating cash on hand—a financial performance ranking in the top quarter of all California hospitals.
So how did we get here?
Remember, two years ago the same healthcare district claimed it was headed toward financial ruin, requesting $10 million from the county and convincing the Hollister City Council to buy a $2 million building to help ease the pain. The healthcare district then filed for bankruptcy protection, but a judge tossed the district out of bankruptcy court while recognizing Hazel Hawkins was doing just fine financially.
It’s clear to me the bankruptcy was a ploy intended to terminate the Hazel Hawkins nurses’ union contract, yet hospital leaders have bulldozed forward on this push for an eventual sale. And it’s obvious to me the potential buyer—whose representatives have claimed their pursuit of Hazel Hawkins is driven by “love” and not money—is salivating at the opportunity for easy profits.
This means local voters are about to be fed a bunch of baloney about the supposed need for a sale. Here’s a preview of the propaganda you will see and hear in the next eight weeks in the form of slick mailers and other high-priced ads meant to manipulate the vote:
- The hospital needs the sale to survive.
- Hazel Hawkins Hospital’s sale will prevent new taxes.
- The local community will maintain oversight of the hospital if it’s sold.
- The county is trying to take over the hospital.
- The private suitor (Insight) will invest millions into the hospital.
Don’t believe any of it. When you get these mailers, toss them right in the recycling bin because that’s where they belong.
There is no guarantee Insight will make any substantial investments into the hospital, and there is no contractual obligation to do so.
What Insight can do is this: Come in, immediately earn millions of dollars in annual profits, make back the initial investment in just a few short years, sell the hospital’s assets at its pleasure for a whopping price tag, and walk away with massive gains while leaving San Benito County without a hospital.
So ask yourself this: What is a bigger risk for our community: Selling our 117-year-old public institution to a private company in Flint, Mich., or maintaining local control and working to make improvements for long-term sustainability?
This shouldn’t be a debate. Vote no on Measure X, and keep Hazel Hawkins public.
Kollin Kosmicki
San Benito County Supervisor, District 2
