Karin Dryhurst

Universal Health Care for Some

President Obama has signed into law reform that will extend health insurance to 32 million people. But a universal health care system? Not according to San Fransisco officials:

Clearly, that day has not come. Healthy San Francisco will still be needed.

San Francisco Public Health Chief Mitch Katz explains that thousands of local residents will be left out. Mayor Gavin Newsom appointed Katz to a working group that will determine how health care reform will affect Healthy San Francisco, the program that has granted access to health care for 51,000 of the city's uninsured residents.

Newsom points out that Healthy San Francisco provides health services regardless of immigration status (in fact, they don't ask). Meanwhile, a third of the 20 million people not covered by the federal plan will be undocumented immigrants.

This just shows that even after historic reform, cities will have to pick up the slack.

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Posted at 3:30 PM, Mar 23, 2010 in Cities
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