Health Summit Imagines Future of LA County Safety Net

Community health workers, activists and senior health care officials came together on Sept. 25 to develop strategies for implementing and strengthening health care reform.
“We have to fight as much or more to keep 

health care reform as we did to get it.”
— Dr. Robert K. Ross, president and chief executive officer of The California Endowment.
Speaking on a panel, Jim Mangia, who heads St. Johns Well Child and Family Center, emphasized the importance of strengthening the public health care delivery system and integrating it with existing county facilities.

“Together we have access because it’s a democratically elected system. If we give that over to the private system, primary care clinics and community health centers and especially the uninsured will become a political football and will be at even more of disadvantage.”
–Jim Mangia, President and CEO, St. John’s Well Child and Family Center
The keynote speaker at the summit was Dylan Roby, Ph.D. Roby presented a Powerpoint detailing the impact health care reform will likely have on Los Angeles County. The Powerpoint slides can be downloaded here. Roby will expand on the Powerpoint in a one-day UCLA Extension class he’ll be teaching on November 13. More details can be found here.
A common theme in many discussions on Saturday was the need for public health care providers to organize themselves and allies around the cause of health care reform in order to protect its funding and expand its reach.



“The critical next step is to increase unity among working groups in LA County. Supervisors making decisions need to hear from us to make the County’s implementation of Health Care Reform a reality.” 
— Paula Miller, Health Educator, LA County Dept. of Public Health

For more information and to get involved, contact Ignacio Garcia at (213) 251-3706.