SACRAMENTO -- Los Angeles County will retain up to $300 million for medical treatment of uninsured residents who must look elsewhere for care after the closure of Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital, under legislation signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday.
The law is intended to avert a healthcare crisis in Los Angeles by creating a fund to receive $100 million annually in federal money for the next three years to pay for health services for the uninsured. The money will go to hospitals and health clinics inundated with patients who otherwise would have gone to Harbor.
Also on Friday, the governor carried out his long-threatened veto of a bill to legalize gay marriage and of the healthcare overhaul proposed by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata (D-Oakland).
Schwarzenegger urged lawmakers to continue to work with him on a compromise healthcare proposal.
"This bill does not achieve coverage for all -- a critical step needed to reduce healthcare costs for everyone," Schwarzenegger said of the measure, AB 8, adding that it "places an unreasonable financial burden on businesses."
Assistance for those affected by the closure of King-Harbor Hospital recognizes the serious consequences for residents needing healthcare. The hospital in Willowbrook closed in August after failing to meet federal standards for patient care, and the $300 million, which would have gone to the hospital had it stayed open, was in danger of being redirected to other facilities outside the county.
"It is important that critical healthcare services continue to be available to residents in the South Los Angeles community," Schwarzenegger said. "This legislation provides funding to maintain access to vital medical care while easing the burden to this region's already overcrowded emergency rooms."
The law, SB 474 by Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica), will create a South Los Angeles Medical Services Preservation Fund, from which the state will distribute funds to area facilities.
County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said the action is important to help meet the needs of a community that was making 40,000 emergency room visits to the hospital before it was shuttered.
"This is significant," Yaroslavsky said. "It was tough enough that Martin Luther King hospital will be closed for some amount of time. It would have been a double jeopardy had we lost the funding that went along with that hospital."
