OBSERVING LOS ANGELES' COUNTY HEALTH SYSTEM

THE BASKET CASE!

January 29, 2002

In 1993, I wrote that Hillary Clinton's national health care plan lacked a very important point. Who would be entitled to such care? The use of the words "all Americans" did not  specify that illegal aliens and legal resident aliens were NOT Americans. I wrote at the time that the breakdown was due to the unprecedented massive flow of illegal aliens to Los Angeles.

Remember when liberals tried to convince us all that to deprive illegal aliens of health benefits (Prop 187), it would result in the government withholding billions of dollars in federal funds. I predicted that this political blackmail by liberals to thwart Prop 187 was naive. After 187 won, not only was the liberals prediction wrong, but the opposite is occurred.

In 1995, the Los Angeles County Health System was on the verge of bankruptcy. No major news media ever included in their columns at the time, nor do they now, what was causing the health system breakdown. In the September 14, 1995, issue of the L.A. Times it said that the L.A. County Board of Supervisors were in trouble with the county's health system and they were on their knees for a federal bailout. The Times article said further that "federal authorities are adamant that no federal funds be used for most non-emergency treatment of illegal immigrants--a sticking point for county officials."

But the county officials were so determined to continue to provide free services to people who have entered the U.S. illegally, that they poo-pooed the Feds about the risk of losing federal funds and the health risk of legal U.S. residents -- but the feds bailed them out anyway. That 1995 Federal bailout was the first of two, the last one in 2000. New the county supervisors need another bailout. But neither California nor the Feds are up to it.

In 1995, I predicted that if Los Angeles continued to provide illegal aliens with free medical services, their numbers would increase and there would ultimately be another county health system breakdown within five years. Then, like clock work, in June of 2000, the breakdown I predicted happened!  The feds bailed L.A. County's heath system out for the second time.  Again  I predicted another breakdown within five years (by 2005). I was wrong, it happened in only two years. See news article of January 29, 2002 and article of January 30, 2002

How am I able to make such accurate predictions? Easy, I just do third grade arithmetic --  something our politicians and bureaucrats don't want to do because THEY JUST DON'T GET IT!

Hal Netkin

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