Assemblywoman Nancy Calhoun (R-C-Blooming Grove) Wednesday renewed her call for a forensic audit of the women’s healthcare center in the Village of Kiryas Joel.
She has written to State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli twice asking for the review of the project, which cost over $11 million, mostly in state funding.
“The very first letter that was written said it was for the poor women of Kiryas Joel. The thing is as it turned out, they are not able to use it in the Medicaid program so the only people who can utilize it are paying over $200 a night,” she said. “That means that this $11.5 million; first was the only competitive bid. After that they were awards by Sheldon Silver, they were awards by George Pataki and they ended up with over $11million of state and a much smaller amount of federal money to go into a facility that is only for those people who are not poor and restricted to one particular group.”
On top of that, Calhoun said there is a mikva in the basement, which is strictly a violation of church and state.”
(Source: MidHudsonNews)
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14 Responses
I believe this is a kimpaturin – a convalescent home for women who just gave birth.
It most probably does serve women who have a lower income level, even if they still do have to pay $200 a night.
Calhoun should be invited to the site to see what exactly they do, and understand that this center truly provides a critical service to overwhelmed mothers who need to recuperate without 8 kids jumping on top of them.
Sorry, while I agree new mothers need a break, the average american person can not understand and will probably say who told em to have 8 kids in the first place and why should it come out of the tax payers pockets to give them a rest. Most people do not go to Kimpaturin homes after giving birth. And at $200.00 a night, that may sound like a luxury hotel to them, and if they can afford that, then they are not poor.
mazal77:
I agree with you that many Americans will not understand this, but to the average Kiryas Yoel mother, Kimpaturin is really not a luxury but the only way to recover.
You get thrown out of the hospital,after 48 hours, and even in the hospital you do not get rest because the nurses wake you every 3 hours.
Mothers can’t expect to get any more rest at home, because they see how badly the rest of the family needs them.
I think for the Kiryas Yoel demographic, this is a critical health service, that the hospitals are not providing.
Unfortunately many in our community are sometimes swept away with what sounds like a good deal when charged a nominal fee for something that is luxury .
The place is gorgeous and if it would be a hotel the price would be far more than $200.00 a day for the service the women get.
However with all the funding,the women should perhaps not even be charged.
The same goes here in Boro Park where there was funding for a beautiful gym. In Williamsburg the families are charged about $10, yes you see correct TEN dollars a year per family member. Here the fee is about $600.00 a year and the hours are limited. Why? Because the place is supposed to be used for therapy and now they are offering it as a gym for certain hours. Shumer funded the place with our tax money. Yes, there are many of us who do pay taxes that go toward funding for such necessities and we want these low income people go get it at no or little cost.
We don’t want them to be charged so that the people running it should live hi style lives on the account of poor people.
This must be stopped!
@Mazal77
You’re right, but just for the sake of argument, fact is that we as large families need it, and for that we’ll do our best to get it, if other people understand it or not, has nothing to do with this fact.
No one is saying Kiryas Yoel shouldn;t have such a facility, THe question is why should the government pay for it…
Lia-
whoever told you that about the gym? What makes you think it was govt funded? It is entirely a private business, not meant for therapy at all.
There is absolutely no problem about having a mikva in this health center.
How about auditing the Muslim that works as a phlebotomist?
mazal77 says: …”why should it come out of the tax payers pockets to give them (MOTHERS)a rest…”
Dear mazal: You don’t understand the manifest unfairness of the Government’s treatment of religious people.
They are denied basic funding for such necessities as education, while being forced to pay taxes, so that non-religious children can enjoy luxury public school facilities, complete with gymnasiums, music classes, auditoriums, lunches. etc, etc, etc.
True, they don’t understand the need for a rest home for exhausted mothers who just had a baby, while their large families need care at home, but the need for a week’s rest is a legitimate health requirement for a mother who is “maxed-out.”
Our Government officials understand this, and that’s why they approved the funding for this recovery center.
As for the price of $200 for a full-service rest center, with complete meal service and well-baby care, just compare it with the cost of a hospital stay, at $1500 per day, plus, plus…
Giving new mothers a rest is a fine idea – however, if the gov’t pay, they should admit ANY new mother.
charvona :
Any woman is welcome to go there. Except if they are paying $200 a night, why go to a Chasidic Kimpaturin, when they can go to the Waldorf Astoria
charvona says: “If the gov’t pay, they should admit ANY new mother.”
GREAT POINT! Let the Government encourage people to have large families by building such centers to accomodate any mother who has a large family.
They could recover the funds for these centers by closing all the “free” Planned Parenthood abortion “clinics” which have murdered almost 70 million children since 1970, at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars per year to the Government.
Why would this be funded by the government? The government doesn’t normally pay for such services, at least in the United States?
To #13, funding does not actually always mean funding as giving directly but rather a nice word for grants.
There are people who make a living writing grants and they know how to “spin” words to get what those applying for the grant would like to get.