Assemblyman Ron Kim - More on Cuomo's Corporate Legal Immunity

 

Why did Governor Cuomo give nursing homes immunity from Covid deaths?

Ron Kim

Was the corporate immunity linked to $1.5m in political contributions from lobbyists? Only a full investigation can help us find out

‘There is more than a good chance that he continued to listen to lobbyists after the budget – and the immunity clause – passed.’ Photograph: Johannes Eisele/AFP/Getty Images

Tue 23 Feb 2021 06.20 EST

342

Imagine fielding hundreds of calls from worried constituents at the peak of the first Covid-19 wave, trying to help scared families protect loved ones in nursing homes.

Imagine being stonewalled by those nursing homes and the department of health as you sought answers to life-and-death questions, knowing that Governor Andrew Cuomo’s directive forced these unprepared facilities to take in thousands of Covid-positive patients.

This was what I was going through as a New York state assemblyman when I received a call from a New York Times reporter about a corporate legal immunity provision that gave for-profit nursing homes and hospitals get-out-of-jail-free cards.

‘Meet the governor we’ve known all along’: how Cuomo fell from grace

Read more

My heart sank as I read it. I did not need a PhD or law degree to understand the repercussions of handing out legal immunity to for-profit nursing homes, which now had legal and criminal shields to disincentivize them from saving lives.