County Votes to Build Baldwin Park Hospital

Moving to resolve one of the state’s most vexing political battles, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to build and operate a 60-bed medical facility in the San Gabriel Valley.

The action is intended to end a protracted impasse between the board majority and powerful state lawmakers over providing health care for hundreds of thousands of some of the county’s poorest residents. The two sides have been at odds for years over the size of a replacement facility for the Eastside’s aging County-USC Medical Center.

The county plans to build a 600-bed hospital. But state lawmakers representing the Eastside and San Gabriel Valley have criticized the project as inadequate, saying a 750-bed center is needed. The county, they note, has the largest concentration of residents in the nation who lack health insurance.

By agreeing to the 60-bed hospital in Baldwin Park, supervisors said Tuesday that they had reached a compromise that would provide health care for residents from the Eastside to the county line in Pomona.

“I think this is a tremendous, significant step,” said Supervisor Gloria Molina, who co-sponsored the motion with Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke.

“Hopefully,” Molina added, “we’re now going to have a meeting of the minds with the state Legislature.”

A number of issues remain to be resolved. Most important is whether the state will provide funds to increase the size of the proposed Baldwin Park facility to meet the 750-bed goal, as well as pay for medical services for any additional people who would be hospitalized there.

Nonetheless, state lawmakers contacted Tuesday applauded the action by the supervisors.

“This is a positive step in the right direction,” said Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles). “I certainly look forward to working with the board to see what the state can do.”

Assemblyman Martin Gallegos (D-Baldwin Park) said that building a second hospital away from the Eastside was an efficient way to provide health care to people who need it the most. Many of the county’s growing uninsured population live in the vast suburban areas such as those he represents.

“The decision,” he said, “is one that is fiscally prudent and represents good health-care policy.”

The supervisors’ action came a week after a legislative hearing in Los Angeles during which state lawmakers and Molina threatened to ratchet up political pressure on the board if it did not change its plans to build only a 600-bed facility.

The issue now rests with the state, Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said. “If they want to go anything above 60 [beds], they will have to pay for it,” he said.

Indeed, it remains to be seen where the state lawmakers will get the money to enlarge the proposed Baldwin Park facility to provide the care they say is desperately needed.

Moreover, the supervisors said in their motion Tuesday that the state would also have to guarantee to cover the health care costs for any extra patients above those who will be accommodated by the 60 beds approved by the county.

But Villaraigosa and other lawmakers said they are confident that funds will be available.

“Our concern is that we build a real hospital that meets the needs of residents,” said Assemblyman Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles). “Right now, the system is overloaded big time.”