Last January, 24-year-old Manny Lanza died from a brain condition after allegedly being turned away from St. Luke's Hospital because he did not have health insurance.

Manny's Law in the news.

However, although charity care funds do exist to cover hospitals who treat uninsured patients, it looks like Spitzer may be cutting back state funding on that.

And it's not just Spitzer. President Bush has proposed a rule to stop federal funding of UPL (Upper Payment Limits) for public hospitals nationwide. Additional federal funding is added to Medicaid payments for public hospitals, at the Medicare reimbursement rate, to cover the sicker patients and the many uninsured who access care at public health and hospital facilities.

To condemn Bush's proposed legislation, New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Congressman Charles Rangel (the new Chair of the Ways & Means Committee) held a Press Conference on Saturday, January 27th , at which they vowed to fight this rule in the Congress. Also at the Press Conference, NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation (HHC) President Al Aviles said that if this new rule is implemented the HHC would lose $350 million a year, or 7% of the HHC budget. This cut could greatly threaten the primary and ambulatory care network developed by HHC. The press conference was also attended by several Councilmembers (James, Sears, and Dickens), unions and advocacy organizations, and a large contingent from the Council of Municipal Hospitals Community Advisory Boards.