People in California are Organizing to Ensure Health Care Access for Undocumented and Uninsured Residents
People in California are organizing for universal access to health care to ensure that everyone, including those who are undocumented or uninsured, has access to the health care they need.
The Dream Resource Center, an organization for young undocumented people, recently released a report called “Undocumented and Uninsured”. The report is based on the findings of a survey of over 500 undocumented people around California, and highlights the barriers that people face in trying to access health care when they don't have papers. “California can continue to lead and set an example,” the report says, “by championing health as a human right; a public good for all.”
Meanwhile The Guardian reports that Los Angeles County, home to 10 million people, may expand a county health program into a universal, publicly financed primary care program that would provide health care to all uninsured residents, including undocumented immigrants. If approved by the County Board of Supervisors, the expanded program would likely follow the model of Healthy SF by using existing community health centers and clinics to provide low-cost primary and preventive care to any uninsured individual who enrolled.