Legislators decry health care gap

Aurelio Rojas
Sacramento Bee

Members of the Legislature's African American, Latino and Asian caucuses convened a town hall meeting in a show of solidarity on the eve of last week's hearing into Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's universal health care plan.

"We want to deliver a message to the governor (and) to the entirety of the Legislature that any health care discussion, absent the issue of health care disparities, will continue to undermine the quality of care and life expectancy in communities of color," state Sen. Mark Ridley-Thomas said at the outset.

During the past year, the Schwarzenegger administration has held more than 1,000 meetings with stakeholders as it developed its health care plan. But Ridley-Thomas, chairman-elect of the Legislative Black Caucus, said the role of race and ethnicity in the distribution of health care resources has been "conspicuously absent from the discussion."