Brooklyn nurses lose health care for weeks despite $15M from state

More than 400 nurses at the Brooklyn Hospital Center, where officials warned of a dire financial hole, have been cut off from health insurance coverage for six weeks, according to their union.

Gov. Kathy Hochul provided $15 million in emergency state aid recently to the financially strapped 181-year-old community hospital that borders Fort Greene Park, multiple sources told THE CITY. Hospital officials requested $160 million last fall, and the $15 million is not enough to restore health benefits for the nurses, according to the New York State Nurses Association.

Officials with the nurses union told THE CITY that workers feel targeted by hospital administrators' decision not to pay into their health care fund. Nurses are the only hospital employees without coverage; doctors, administrative staff and other workers have been unaffected.

"You chose the nurses, the one group of people that actually show up — rain, sun, sleet, snow," said Rehana Lowtan, a nurse educator who began her career at the hospital 20 years ago. "We have nurses here that have serious medical conditions. They have families that are on their plans that don't have access to any kind of care right now."

The nurses who spoke to THE CITY said they do not know when, or if, coverage will be reinstated.

"There's no communication," said Yvette Byer-Henry, a certified nurse midwife who has worked at the hospital for 25 years. "It just reeks."

A spokesperson for the hospital, Zack Fink, said the facility is "working closely with NYSNA and the Hochul administration on a solution."

"The Brooklyn Hospital Center values our NYSNA represented nurses and recognizes that medical benefits are an essential part of supporting our colleagues and their families. The immediate issue is securing the funds necessary to continue covering those medical benefits," he said in a statement.

The hospital has requested additional money from the state on top of the $74 million it received in 2025. The plea for help comes as the facility considers bankruptcy, the hospital's chief executive Gary G. Terranoni, told Spectrum News in November.

Bill Hammond, a senior fellow for health policy at the Albany-based think tank the Empire Center, called the hospital's failure to pay nurses' benefits "a move of desperation" that could show the governor it needs the requested aid.

"That would communicate to the state we are in deep trouble, and it would turn the nurses into your allies for pushing the state for money," he said. "If that is their strategy that would be using them as a bargaining chip."

The state and the safety net

Assemblymember Phara Souffrant Forrest (D-Brooklyn), said the reality of safety net hospitals necessitates state aid, explaining that Medicaid reimburses the hospital below the cost of its care.

"The reimbursement rates are not on par with the care that is being given," she said.

"Ultimately, the responsibility rests with the state that hospitals like Brooklyn Hospital Center should be made whole," added Souffrant Forrest, who has worked as a nurse. "Unfortunately, the governor is trickling in funding. She did make the choice not to include increases in safety net funding overall in last year's budget."

Hochul's office did not respond to a request for comment.

Brooklyn Hospital Center's nurses averted a strike in January by coming to a tentative agreement on a labor contract with management. The terms included the hospital fully providing the nurses' health care and pension benefits.

The nurses, who said they were unaware that the hospital had not paid the benefits fund since November, accepted the contract. They are now legally prohibited from striking due to the contract agreement.

"If they are in a financial crisis, [hospital officials] should not be making promises they can't keep," Hammond said.

Byer-Henry told THE CITY the hospital has failed to make monthly payments to the benefit fund in the past, but this is the first time nurses have lost health care.

"When you made the decision to not pay one portion of your employees' benefit, what was your thinking going forward?" Byer-Henry said. "Because you can't run a hospital without nurses — nurses are the backbone of the hospital."

Brooklyn Hospital Center is a safety net hospital and is not affiliated with large providers such as Mount Sinai Health System or Northwell Health.

Instead, its primary source of income is from its patients. About 80% are covered by Medicaid and Medicare, where the hospital receives its reimbursement and funding, according to a recent report from the Healthcare Association of New York State.

President Donald Trump's recent cuts to Medicaid have hurt safety net institutions like Brooklyn Hospital.

According to Hammond, the request for state aid also points to a broader issue of hospitals relying on the state for emergency bailouts, rather than having long-term plans to solve their fiscal problems.

"That makes it more likely that hospitals will get in financial trouble in the future because they have a reasonable expectation they can squeeze money out of the state," he said.

The nurses at Brooklyn Hospital Center currently face what Hammond called, "a very painful irony" — confronting the health care system every day while not having coverage for medical care themselves.

Byer-Henry said she continues to show up at the hospital to work, despite the changes in her insurance. She previously thought her husband's insurance would cover her, but found out on Wednesday it would not.

"I do it because I love my patients," she said. "A lot of my patients don't want to see anyone else."

Subscribe to Continue Reading

Sign In

Leave a Comment

Click here to cancel reply.