New York City's public hospitals fear huge loss in subsidies

New York City's public hospital system is facing a fiscal crisis because New York state is threatening to cut its financing for the care of poor patients at a time when the number of uninsured patients has soared, city officials told the New York Times. The cuts, included in Gov. David A. Paterson's executive budget proposal, could drain from the public hospitals up to $370 million, much of it in federal financing, and shift the money to programs in voluntary, or private, hospitals, the officials said.