First 5 LA, the largest local funder of children’s health insurance in Los Angeles County, last Thursday joined a coalition of health care funders and advocates in calling for state officials to create permanent, long-term policy solutions to provide health coverage for the more than 800,000 uninsured children in California.
At a news conference at the Arroyo Vista Family Health Center in Lincoln Heights, several local leaders, including LA County Supervisor Gloria Molina, LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and Cynthia Ann Telles, chair of the Board of The California Endowment, all urged state policy makers to provide health insurance coverage to every child in California.
“Our leaders in Sacramento would do well to put aside partisan differences and work together to ensure that all California’s children have quality health care,” said Molina, who served as First 5 LA chair in 2005. “It’s what our children deserve, and it’s what we should provide for them.”
In 2003, First 5 LA committed $100 million over five years to provide all LA County children five and under with health insurance, including outreach and funding of Healthy Kids, a free and low-cost health insurance for children whose families fall below 300 percent of the federal poverty level, and who do not qualify for state-sponsored health services.
