Mayor Bloomberg Defends Beyoncé's VIP Treatment at Lenox Hill Hospital

Mayor Bloomberg Defends Beyoncé's VIP Treatment at Lenox Hill Hospital Even As Inequality and Injustice in Healthcare Becomes More and More Pronounced in the Aftermath of the Closing of St. Vincent's Hospital.

From DNA Info :

MIDTOWN — Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s VIP treatment at Lenox Hill Hospital Tuesday, arguing big spenders like them help subsidize other patients' care."

The power couple and their little bundle of joy, Blue Ivy Carter, have been under fire from angry parents who’ve complained about being blocked from seeing their newborns thanks to airtight security measures for the superstar couple, who reportedly rented out the fourth floor of the hospital for $1.3 million. ...

“If [the hospital] got paid a lot of money and it let them provide services to other people who don’t have insurance or can’t afford it, I’m not so sure it’s a bad thing," he said.

Mayor Bloomberg said during a press conference celebrity or luxury hospital suites can be "an enormous revenue source" at a time when the Mayor keeps cutting the budgets of public city hospitals.

Mayor Bloomberg had more to say about whether celebrities and rich people should get better "services" than lower-class patients. “I don’t think you should keep people from seeing their babies, or whatever, but have different services for people who are full-paying patients," he said. “It’s easy to go and criticize, but somebody’s got to pay.”

Activists from the Healthcare for the 99 Per Cent. Working Group of #OWS gathered in Union Square on Martin Luther King, Jr., Day.

Advocates for a true universal healthcare system "for all" gathered at Union Square on Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, to call attention to what they said was the inequality in the provision of healthcare in New York City, New York State, and in the United States.

Advocates were joined by members of PNHP (Physicians for a National Health Program), HC499% (the Healthcare for the 99 Per Cent. Working Group of #OccupyWallStreet), and by St. Vincent's Hospital activists.

In 1966, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said, "Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and most inhuman."