The Labor Committee of Mass-Care has unveiled a white paper detailing three key steps that can be taken to prevent Dallas-based Steward Health Care from closing its nine Massachusetts hospitals.
The June 20 paper, "The Steward Hospital Crisis: How Medicare for All and Eminent Domain Would Solve this Problem," detailed how Massachusetts has seen 42 inpatient closures from 2009 to 2022.
Steward filed for bankruptcy May 6 and is looking to auction off its hospitals and physician group, Stewardship Health. The paper breaks down how Steward selling these assets off to for-profit corporations is not the answer and looks at how the proposed legislation An Act Establishing Medicare for All in Massachusetts would handle the Steward crisis and help stop its hospitals from closing.
"It is clear to most people that health care should not be left in the hands of those who only seek to make a profit," the white paper said. "It is up to municipalities, the legislature, and the Governor to take action to prevent the closing of Steward hospitals and indeed, to stop the tidal wave of hospital closing in Massachusetts. Health care is a right, not a privilege."
Here are the three key steps suggested in the white paper:
1. Should An Act Establishing Medicare for All in Massachusetts be enacted, the legislation's provisions could help keep Steward's hospitals open to serve their respective communities.
2. If Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey declared a healthcare emergency, the Public Health Commissioner would have the power to take necessary steps to protect the public's health. "The commissioner, with the approval of the public health council, may establish procedures to be followed during such emergency to [e]nsure the continuation of essential public health services and the enforcement of the same," Mass Laws Chapter 17 Section 2A said, according to a July 8 news release shared with Becker's.
3. The power of eminent domain could be used by state or local governments to take the hospitals over to sell them to nonprofit organizations or operate them as community hospitals.
Becker's has reached out to Steward for comment and will update this story if more information becomes available.