Green Right to Get Tough as Solaris Drags Feet

Below is the featured Editorial from today’s Courier News/Union edition in making sure Plainfield receives the healthcare services they deserve:

Green Right to Get Tough as Solaris Drags Feet

Assemblyman Jerry Green, D-Plainfield, deserves plaudits for his never-ending efforts to make sure his constituents get a square deal in the aftermath of the closure of Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center.

Green has tirelessly devoted himself to ensuring residents receive the same high quality of health care they were enjoying when Muhlenberg was a vital part of the community.

The assemblyman has continually pressured Solaris to live up to the 18 conditions the state placed on Solaris when it closed the 131-year-old hospital that employed more than 1,000 people. Among the primary points of contention is the accusation that Solaris is reneging on its commitment to provide ambulance services to Plainfield residents.

Solaris has been dragging its feet on fulfilling its end of the bargain. Maybe that’s a tactic in the ongoing negotiations between Solaris and Plainfield, but residents are being caught in the middle, and their concerns are being short-changed by the frustrating delay in reaching a settlement.

Joined by residents of North Plainfield and Scotch Plains, Green announced at a news conference on Wednesday that he will ask the state to withhold more than $170 million from bonds granted to Solaris nearly five months ago by the New Jersey Health Care Financing Authority.

“I’m going to ask everybody in Trenton to make sure they (Solaris) don’t get a dollar,” Green said. That naturally drew a sharp response from Solaris, whose spokesman said Green’s vow as counterproductive in promoting and maintaining health-care coverage in the area. Solaris officials have said that a little less than $150 million of the bonds is expected to be allocated toward debt restructuring, with $22 million budgeted for a renovation and expansion of JFK Medical Center in Edison.

Solaris is going to utilize most of the funds to put its financial house in order; in this atmosphere of expedient and expensive bailouts, residents are allowed to be rightfully cynical about exactly where the money will go and who it will benefit. Residents want to know how the money will assuage their literal life-and-death worries about their health care.

The intransigence of Solaris can be countered only by forceful action, such as the threat to withhold the bond money. It’s unfortunate Green has to resort to the threat, but it has to be done to ensure that Plainfield area residents receive the health care they deserve.

Our Position:
We applaud Assemblyman Green’s tough negotiation with Solaris and urge the company to deliver the health care it promised to Plainfield.