Check out our coverage by the Pulitzer prize winning newspaper The Guardian! The #LAHealth4All Coalition is making national waves as we push Los Angeles County to fully fund the program they are planning. The Guardian is following our efforts to ensure the County is held accountable in what they say will be a “model” for other cities and counties to follow.
On a sunny weekday morning just east of downtown Los Angeles, a crowd of about 75 people rallied outside the LA County/USC Medical Center. They toted signs with slogans like “Healthcare is a Human Right” and “Salud Para Todos” (“Health for All”).
“How can we say we live in a just and humane society,” said one speaker, “without providing for the sickest and most vulnerable among us?”
This wasn’t 2009, when the Affordable Care Act was a hot point of debate. It happened just last week. The activists organized the rally to urge the LA County board of supervisors to increase funding to a program called Healthy Way LA that is spearheading an experiment to cover those who are uninsured or can’t afford or qualify for Obamacare.”
We know that Los Angeles and California can lead the nation in providing health for all, but we know that we need to keep our voices loud to ensure that the County doesn’t accept the praise of covering the uninsured and undocumented while only helping 1 out of 9 people actually access affordable health care coverage.
Here are some quotes from the article from some of our speakers!
“We’re dealing with segregated health care in America,” says Victoria Ortega, a program director at the community health center Clinica Romero, at the rally. “We didn’t tolerate it in the education system; we shouldn’t tolerate it in the health care system either.”
“She would have to be dying for the operation to be covered,” said Iliana Garcia
“These people deserve the same healthcare as anyone else,” said Dr Brownell Payne of Crenshaw Health Partners. “It doesn’t matter if you’re undocumented or the president. We all have red blood cells. This isn’t about money, it’s about taking care of our people.”
Click here to read the full article…
The #LAHealth4All event was also covered by KPFK 90.7 FM in Los Angeles. Check out this interview with California Partnership’s very own Jeff Brewer below.