Posts Tagged: low-income

OPINION: Once again the California Hospital Association is mounting a crusade that the survival of the multibillion-dollar California hospital industry is in grave jeopardy. The threat? Earthquakes? Climate change? Godzilla? Not exactly. The big threat is AB 503, a bill that would let the public know whether non-profit hospital corporations justify their enormously profitable tax-exempt status by providing sufficient charity care and community benefits.

OPINION The importance of health care access to underserved populations is clear. Today, those local health needs are identified and prioritized in collaboration with local governments, nonprofit hospitals and community members. These “community benefit plans” provide the framework for local hospitals to direct available resources to target local health care needs in the community.

The California economy is on the mend, and the state’s economic outlook is positive.  But we still have a long way to go to ensure that recovery takes hold in every community throughout the state.

This is especially true in rural and urban low-income neighborhoods, often communities of color, which continually struggle with double