Overseeing Health

“Loosen Supervisors’ Grip” (editorial, July 8) criticized the L.A. County Board of Supervisors for not intervening to address fiscal and operational problems facing the Department of Health Services, while it accused the board of micromanaging the same issues.

While the board’s oversight may be seen by some in the bureaucracy as an annoyance, as elected officials we have an obligation to ensure that public resources are expended appropriately; to do otherwise would be an abrogation of our responsibilities. Bureaucrats who fail wll be replaced.

Your call for an independent health authority only adds another level of bureaucracy. It is based on illusions.

Until such time as the federal and state governments reform health care so that they allow the money to follow the patient, there will not be a solution that is acceptable to either your newspaper or the residents of this county.

Michael D. Antonovich

Supervisor, 5th District