A Resounding "YES" we will work with ONE LA - From Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, LA County Dir. of Health Services Mitchell Katz and Assemblyman Mike Feuer

Today, over 400 leaders from One LA gathered at Temple Emanuel, Beverly Hills to present a community agenda for health care reform to State Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, Assemblyman Mike Feuer, and L.A. County Director of Health Services Dr. Mitchell Katz. 

Father Rosendo of Urrabazo from Our Lady Queen of Angels – La Placita, and Diane Vanette of Temple Emanuel, opened the proceedings repeating the call to action for health care reform. When the ONE LA member communities were asked to stand up and make themselves known, there was a visible reaction from our guests as they realized the people in the room represented ALL the diverse communities of Los Angeles and that they were standing together with one voice. A truly powerful voice.

Guests and audience alike sat riveted when Jane Hirsch of Immanuel Presbyterian spoke about the need for creating a stronger public system in LA County. Carolina Garcia and Maria Garcia both spoke on behalf of their families relating the utter confusion and devastation created by the totally inadequate health care system. This afternoon ONE LA spoke about the plight of not only the homeless, but the working poor, the increased demands on the clinics at a time when they have lost physicians because of budget cutbacks and about the 1 in 5 people aged 18-64 who are not insured; most finding co-payments unaffordable and medication prohibitively expensive.

ONE LA spoke for small business represented by Rabbi Susan Leider from Temple Beth Am, Exec. Dir. Ellis Kirschenbaum from Temple Emanuel, Sandra Babcock CEO of Dubnoff Center for Child Development and Samuel Chu from 1010 Development Corporation. All spoke up about the dire need for comprehensive affordable health care for their employees, emphasizing how these organizations are all non-profits and rely on donations and funding to exist. Affordable and comprehensive health care is a huge concern for them.  

Last but not least skyrocketing rates and arbitrary and unilateral denials of claims were discussed by Dr. Mark Weiss of Temple Emanuel – himself a provider, and Fran Grossman of Temple Beth Am who ended up with a bill for tens of thousands of dollars when her claim was denied. All efforts at appealing this horrendous bill fell on deaf ears.

After each discussion the speakers asked Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, Director of Health services for LA County Dr. Mitchell Katz, and Assemblyman Mike Feuer if they were committed to working with ONE LA to create a better health care system and they all responded with a resounding YES. All three committed to sending staff members to attend work groups and would personally attend future small business summits in an effort to create a system that would work for all. Dr. Katz was extremely impressed with the gathering & said that he was a primary care physician and would be honored to work with the local communities to teach individuals how the system works.

Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones and Assemblyman Mike Feuer expressed their unequivocal commitment to support the work of ONE LA however requested our support in return. Assemblyman Mike Feuer also spoke about introducing legislation to halt unreasonable increases and asked for signatures for AB 52. He emphasized that the time for true and lasting reform is NOW. We absolutely agree!

Finally Rabbi Neil Scheindlin from Temple Emanuel talked about the next steps on this road to reform, and closing remarks were made by Rabbi Geller from Temple Emanuel. 

This day was not only a tremendously successful event, we made a huge impact on our guests who were clearly moved by the united front exhibited by the members of ONE LA.

Keep your eyes on this blog as we will be posting further developments for this action and the road ahead. We need your support! Pictures will  be updated soon!