More than 200 community activists this week urged the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to commit $150 million to healthcare for uninsured and undocumented residents.
Clinic workers, community advocates and church and synagogue members rallied downtown outside the Hahn Hall of Administration, calling for more funding for Healthy Way L.A. Unmatched, the county’s program for the indigent and uninsured.
“There are close to 400,000 people (in Los Angeles County) who will not be covered under the Affordable Care Act,” Jim Mangia, president and CEO of St. John’s Well Child and Family Center, told the board.
There are an estimated 1 million or more county residents who remain uninsured, though many of them are eligible for coverage under the Affordable Care Act and simply have not enrolled. Those who are in the country illegally are barred from participating under federal law.
Dr. Mitchell Katz, who heads the county’s hospital system, told the board that the county healthcare system doesn’t exclude anyone.
“We care for everyone,” Katz said. “We will provide full care without regard for people’s insurance status or their immigration status.”
The county doesn’t have a reliable count of how many uninsured patients are treated under Healthy Way L.A. Unmatched because visits to emergency rooms and community clinics are not coordinated by a primary care physician, Katz said. But that will change Sept. 1, when Healthy Way L.A. is set to be relaunched as a managed-care system.
Participating clinics will be paid a set monthly amount for every patient they treat, rather than a per-visit fee. And all patients will be assigned a primary care physician.
Katz believes that the $55 million budgeted for uninsured patients will cover all those in need. Any shortfall in services could be better assessed once the new system takes effect, he said.
Advocates want the county to commit now to spend another $95 million to close the healthcare gap. They say that the momentum created by ACA enrollment events and the infrastructure in place to expand Medi-Cal can be leveraged to extend quality healthcare to all county residents.
“Funding Healthy Way LA at $150 million is the right thing to do. Let’s do it now,” said Mary Jackson of OneLA, a coalition of community advocates.
Katz warned that any major new expenditures by his department could result in cuts to state funding under a current spending cap.
Mangia discounted that argument, saying that $95 million didn’t amount to a major spend, given the county’s $26 billion proposed 2014-15 budget.
“That’s not major, that’s budget dust,” Mangia said.
