State Republican chairman Christopher Healy is slamming Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's $864 million expansion plan at the University of Connecticut Health Center as "a waste of taxpayer dollars'' and "a failed public policy model.''
Healy says it is a bad idea to pour millions of dollars into a public hospital at a time when many other community hospitals are barely breaking even in the difficult world of healthcare financing.
"Changing the subject over his fraudulent state budget by asking the taxpayers to support a hopelessly inefficient public hospital won't fool anyone who understands you can't spend your way to prosperity," Healy said in a statement. "The UConn Health Center has long been a disaster for taxpayers and patients. It should be shuddered, not rewarded with millions and threaten community hospitals that do a good job providing quality health care."
He added, "If Democrats shower millions on the UConn Health Center, it will lead to more of the same - a waste of tax dollars while under-cutting health care providers that are hanging on for dear life. Fresh from his fiscal shell game on the budget, Gov. Malloy thinks he can break out another credit card to reward the unions who work at that facility."
The health center has had chronic financial problems, and the legislature has bailed out the Farmington institution four times since 2000. The huge infusion of funds often comes on the last day of the legislative session, which this year is June 8.
