At the Albany Project, NYBri reports on how Gov. Spitzer had a particularly steamrollin' day yesterday, taking on SEIU 1199 and the Greater New York Hospital Association over Medicaid, and Mayor Bloomberg over education.

We've seen Spitzer's "crybabies" ad, directed at those who are opposing him on Medicaid. Yesterday, the steamroller kept the pressure on with a PowerPoint presentation to civic and business leaders in the city:

Suddenly a new slide popped up on the giant screen behind Mr. Spitzer on the stage of the Hilton New York ballroom. It said, in huge letters, “Guardians of the Status Quo,” and it bore the logos of the two groups, the Greater New York Hospital Association and the union, 1199 S.E.I.U. United Healthcare Workers East, which have joined forces to become one of the most powerful lobbies in Albany.

“Now, my good friends at 1199 and Greater New York, I want to put your logos up here just so everybody will know who you are,” Mr. Spitzer began, before launching into a point-by-point rebuttal, with 16 more slides, of their claims about his proposed cuts.

The health care officials seemed stunned afterward. Kenneth E. Raske, the president of the hospital association, said, “I have never in my professional life seen anything like that.”

Meanwhile, 1199 and Greater New York have fired back with an ad of their own - featuring nurses who ask why the governor is "attacking" them (h/t Capitol Confidential):

Setting aside the merits of the debate, the governor may be getting into dangerous territory here.

(More after the flip...)

In his State of the Union Address tonight, President Bush will propose a plan that shifts tax incentives to increase health coverage for the uninsured. The fact that Grover Norquist and Pat Toomey support it should be enough to send up a Texas-sized red flag. But if you want a New York angle on why it's a bad idea, you can find it in the Times' pre-SOTU analysis of the State of Bush. Seems that a major chunk of the money for the plan will come directly at the expense of New York's hospitals.

Several public health officials reacted with alarm to Mr. Bush’s plan to encourage states to take Medicaid money now earmarked for public hospitals and use it for state programs to cover the uninsured. The Bush administration proposes cutting Medicaid payments to public hospitals and other “safety net” providers by $3.9 billion over the next five years. Preliminary estimates suggest that 40 percent of the savings would come at the expense of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, which operates 11 hospitals, 4 nursing homes and more than 80 community clinics.

Kenneth E. Raske, president of the Greater New York Hospital Association, called the proposal “an absolute disaster for New York.”

Deborah Bachrach, a deputy commissioner in the New York State Health Department, said it would affect hospitals “that serve some of the lowest-income, most vulnerable patients.”

[Emphasis mine].

New York's hospitals are already deep in crisis. Now they're going to be plundered to pay for some half-assed, incrementalist, Norquist-supported Bush administration plan?

Thanks again, George. You never cease to find ways to screw this town over.

Update: The Center for American Progress has a great quick analysis of what's wrong with Bush's health proposal.

As demonstrators rally in Syracuse, and others walk from Buffalo to Albany, to protest the hospital-closing recommendations of the Berger Commission, the folks at the Opportunity Agenda, working with a number of partner organizations, bring us this Google Maps mash-up showing how the closings would disproportionately affect low-income and minority communities here in NYC.

The problem, as Joshua Brustein at the invaluable Gotham Gazette puts it, is New York's "Twin Crises in Health Care:" fragile finances and lack of access to care. On the one hand, hospitals all over the state are facing bankruptcy - as care is increasingly outsourced to clinics and average hospital stays decline in length, hospitals in the state have lost $2.4 billion since 1998. The solution recommended by the Berger Commission is, among other things, to close some of those hospitals, reducing the "glut" of beds and improving the finances of other hospitals that will pick up business from those that have been shut.