Major Moments, Minor Lifts

The “major moment in the history of health care in this city” amounts to little more than a press conference and eventual reversal, with added benefit of additional lawsuits:

Under pressure to settle the suit quickly and stem losses that were mounting at $13 million a month, SUNY agreed to ill-conceived bidding rules that favored any plan to keep LICH as a hospital, no matter how unrealistic.

Even though that deal politicized a process that should be driven by public health considerations, de Blasio hailed it as a historic breakthrough.

Just how wrong he was became clear when the winner emerged as Brooklyn Health Partners, an outfit so obviously unfit that it was quickly rejected by Blasio and the unions — and could not even come up with promised down payment of $25 million by Thursday’s extended deadline.

With the mayor’s support, SUNY then opened talks with the runner-up, Peebles Corp., which plans much the same mix of medical services and housing that de Blasio found unacceptable last year.

Standing in the way of this outcome, however, are not one but two fresh lawsuits — the first by Brooklyn Health Partners, claiming it was treated unfairly, and another by community groups that were de Blasio’s former allies, claiming SUNY violated terms of the cockamamie settlement.