Inoculation From the Worst of It

Los Angeles County had better start preparing right now for a predicted public-health crisis brought on by major state funding cuts in medical services for the poor. And county officials and the public alike had better be aware of the dangers this crisis poses to the entire community.

Strained budgets could shrink county health expenditures by as much as $120 million. Plans have already been proposed to close as many as one-third of the county’s 47 health centers and cut hospital clinic services by 35%. Experts forecast grim consequences, like new epidemics of preventable diseases--measles, whooping cough, diphtheria, mumps--because children aren’t inoculated. But potential victims of infectious diseases won’t be limited to those forced to go without publicly funded health services. “There will be sick children in the schools, sick folks in the streets, in the shopping centers, there will be a general decline in the health status of our communities,” warns Dr. Robert Valdez, a health policy analyst at the RAND Corp.

The economic costs--in premature deaths, lost work days, higher medical expenses for those able to pay--will be high. Private health care providers say they can’t pick up much more of the burden. But the threat looms. Austerity of course plays havoc with many worthy programs. But few if any are more important than protecting public health. County officials, obviously with much less to work with than they need, nonetheless must give the health challenge the top priority it deserves.