Under a new law to be implemented this year, New York State’s poor and uninsured patients will be entitled to affordable hospital care and financial aid. As of now, those in need of medical care but without insurance usually pay hospital rates that are considerably higher than what health insurers are charged. But under the new law, hospitals will not be permitted to charge these patients any more than they would charge an insurance company, Medicare or Medicaid. In addition, hospitals will also establish financial assistance programs for the poor and uninsured, and will be required to inform them of these new options. Also in hospital news, last Wednesday, a Bronx Supreme Court judge issued a temporary restraining order preventing the New York State Department of Health from closing any hospitals until a Jan. 29 court hearing. The order came in response to a lawsuit filed on behalf of Westchester Square Medical Center in the Bronx, due to close last year by the Berger commission, a governor appointed state panel charged with remedying New York’s high-cost health care problem. This is just one of five hospitals slated to close or be restructured when the panel’s recommendations became law on Jan. 1.