Crowd Rallies to Protest Hospital Cuts(re - the futurewhen all residents have h...),Health

West State Street was closed to traffic to accommodate the crowd. Attendees donned blue T-shirts emblazoned with a white block H -- the universal image used on highway signs to signal a hospital ahead. Many wore surgical masks declaring "These cuts make me sick." About a dozen hospital-based paramedic units also lined the street and blared their sirens in unison to officially start the rally.

Several lawmakers addressed the crowd. They included Senate President Richard Codey (D-West Orange), Sen. Joe Vitale (D-Woodbridge), Sen. Dana Redd (D-Camden), Sen. Leonard Lance (R-Flemington), Sen. Ronald Rice (D-Newark), Sen. Nia Gill (D-Montclair) and Assembly members Joe Cryan (D-Union), Louis Greenwald (D-Voorhees), Joe Malone (R-Bordentown), Teresa Ruiz (D-Newark) and Grace Spencer (D-Essex.) Other scheduled speakers included Michael D'Agnes, president and CEO of Raritan Bay Medical Center; Alex Hatala, president and CEO of Lourdes Health System; Mike Maron, president and CEO of Holy Name Hospital and chair of the Catholic HealthCare Partnership; and Bill McDonald, president and CEO of St. Joseph's Regional Medical Center and board chair of the N.J. Council of Teaching Hospitals.

The Corzine spending plan also calls for a total of $90 million in state and federal cuts to nursing homes. Janice Clouthier, a Williamstown resident whose mother is a resident of Kennedy Health Care Center in Sewell, urged the Governor to live up to his promises to the state's most vulnerable residents by preserving high quality care for the frail elderly who depend on nursing homes. She was joined by Brian Klocke, the facility's executive director.

Other proposed cuts would target graduate medical education, adult day health services, cancer center grants and children's partial hospitalization services, for a total of nearly $300 million in healthcare cuts. In addition, the budget proposes new co-pay
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