Residents of East Los Angeles are ready to organize and fight the healthcare cuts announced in Sacramento.
That message came clear during a recent public forum titled "Our Budget and the Health of Our Community" and sponsored by 22nd District California State Senator Gilbert Cedillo.
Cedillo joined various health experts and service providers at the Salesian Family Youth Center on Saturday, June 20th, to discuss the problems facing the healthcare system in Los Angeles County. The panelists agreed that the challenges will become greater if cuts to the state budget — which currently faces a $26 billion deficit — could kick 1 million adults and children off publicly subsidized healthcare programs and eliminate the Healthy Families plan altogether, eliminating coverage for as many as 1 million more children.
The problem is particularly pronounced in the 22nd District that Cedillo represents, which includes Downtown Los Angeles, a vast territory to the east, and parts of the hard-pressed Pico-Union and Westlake districts to the west. The panelists estimated that one in every three residents of the 22nd District currently lack healthcare, with the number bound to rise if publicly subsidized programs are cut.
Dr. E. Richard Brown from the UCLA Public Health Research Center called on residents of East Los Angeles to raise their voices and speak their minds to elected officials in these times of crisis.
"You can organize yourselves with your leaders and families to fight the cuts that Sacramento wants," he said.
Martha Jimenez, a representative for 1st District Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, who represents much of the area, said the it will be just as important to speak up for priorities as the reality of the state's fiscal crisis plays out — and for public officials to take steps to minimize the effects of budget cuts. Molina has recently sought an expansion in the number of community clinics in hopes of seeing fewer people who lack healthcare insurance rely on emergency rooms at local hospitals.
"The cuts are a reality," Jimenez said. "We all have to find the most indispensable programs. The supervisor has asked for resources for the community clinics because she believes that the community needs them the most. We have to make sure that people do not go to the emergency room."
The panelists also pointed out that people should not be afraid to make use of any publicly subsidized programs that survive the pending budget cuts.
"People should arrive and say: 'this is my income. What do I qualify for?'" said Dr. Hector Flores.
Cedillo told the crowd that he believes that healthcare services are a human right and the community must know that there is a safety net in the county designed for people who have no health insurance.
"People should know that the services are in their neighborhood, that the community clinics are committed to the community because they are devised for the community, and that there are preventative healthcare services."
Dr. Hector Flores said the proposed cuts to state-subsidized healthcare programs also threaten long-serving institutions such as White Memorial Hospital in the Boyle Heights district, where he is on staff.
"In programs such as Healthy Families, Memorial hospital will lose half of our income and half of our patients," said Flore, who added that a loss of half of its patients could leave the hospital facing bankruptcy.
Flores proposed fighting hard against budget cuts and pushing for tax increases. His call obviously appealed to a group of students in the crowd, several of whom pointed out California does not charge a tax on oil drawn wells in the state. All other oil-producing states charge some tax on production.
Cedillo said that California's budgetary problems have been made worse by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's moves in recent years to cut taxes, including vehicle registration fees and other sources of state revenue.
Mireya Olivera is editor of Impulso.
Photos by Impulso
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