Waters fights for MLK Community Hospital

Rep. Maxine Waters (CA-43) is urging immediate action to support Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital (MLKCH), a critical safety-net hospital in the underserved community of South Los Angeles, in a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom, who had vetoed a bill in 2022 that would have provided the hospital approximately $25-$30 million in additional funds annually.
“I call on you as the Governor of the Great State of California to reverse your decision of 2022 and immediately support legislation that will adjust MLKCH’s supplemental funding methodology to include outpatient services, including the approximately 125,000 ED services provided by the hospital every year. This will cost an estimated $25 million per year. More importantly, it will save countless lives.”
Excerpts of Waters’ letter to Newsom:
Dear Gov. Newsom:
“I write regarding an extraordinarily serious matter confronting the City and County of Los Angeles and our entire region: the crisis facing Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital (MLKCH), a critical safety-net hospital in the underserved community of South Los Angeles.
“MLKCH opened its doors in 2015 with a beautiful, new state-of-the-art facility in order to serve the tremendous unmet health care needs of the community in the wake of the 2007 closure of Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center. Approximately 60 percent of MLKCH’s patients are Hispanic, and 40 percent are African American. The hospital’s patients are overwhelmingly low-income, as demonstrated by the fact that 87 percent are on Medicaid or uninsured.
“Since its opening, this outstanding hospital has developed a reputation for excellence and received numerous awards, including a Five-Star rating from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, The Joint Commission Gold Seal of Approval™ for Hospital Accreditation, multiple “Grade As” in patient safety from The Leapfrog Group, and individual awards for excellence in wound care, diabetes care, maternity care, and tuberculosis care.
“Unfortunately, MLKCH is in grave danger of being forced to close due to a severe lack of funding. As the Los Angeles Times reported last year, MLKCH lost more than $42 million in the budget year ending in June 2023. I have been informed that, as it stands today, MLKCH is projected to run out of money and face insolvency in early 2025 – less than one year away.
“MLKCH is all about saving lives. It is about providing desperately needed, high-quality health care to a community that has suffered neglect and underinvestment for far too long. It is about serving the least of these.
“This unique hospital serves some of the poorest and sickest people in the State of California and perhaps the entire country. Our community depends on MLKCH, and we cannot allow it to close.