L.A. County Health Care

* Re “Board OKs Report on Proposed Medical Center,” June 7: I worked for Pete Schabarum when he was on the L.A. County Board of Supervisors. He worked to find property in the El Monte-Baldwin Park area to build a county hospital to better serve residents of that area. Supervisor Gloria Molina should have continued his effort after Schabarum retired and she was elected to fill that seat. She didn’t. It is strange that she prefers to build a larger hospital in downtown Los Angeles. Why make residents of the eastern end of the county drive downtown for medical care? It doesn’t make sense.

The answer is simple: Molina isn’t nearly as interested in sick people as she is in playing hardball politics. The Board of Supervisors is correct to build a 600-bed facility downtown. When that facility is completed it can consider whether a hospital is needed in the San Gabriel Valley.

TOM HIBBARD

Loma Linda

*

Re “Health Funds Crisis, Part II,” editorial, June 4: You have placed the dart (the need for health care services for the uninsured) right in the center of the target (the county, the state and the federal governments need to resolve the waiver impasse immediately). If waiver funding is lost, our organization will be unable to continue to provide almost 18,000 visits, 42% of which are to individuals with hypertension, diabetes, asthma and other chronic conditions, over the next year.

There can be lots of finger-pointing in regard to whether the current waiver goals have been met or whether the state and county can or should contribute funds to the waiver, but the most important consideration in this entire matter is whether more than 250,000 Los Angeles residents without health insurance will continue to receive the medical care they need and deserve.

CARL E. COAN, President

Pediatric and Family

Medical Center

Los Angeles