Workers, students speak out against closure of Los Angeles hospital

Following an unfavorable report by the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (USCMMS), the administrators of Martin Luther King Jr. have moved to close the hospital, beginning with the immediate closure of the hospital’s emergency room.

The abrupt decision to close the hospital’s ER was the consequence of a decision by federal authorities to revoke $200 million in annual funding; with the decision flowing from the USCMMS report. The entire hospital is expected to fully close its doors by next week, as soon as the last patient can be released or transferred to another hospital.

Martin Luther King Jr.—Harbor hospital sits on the border of the region known as South Central Los Angeles, a racially segregated inner-city enclave south of downtown with rates of unemployment of 15 to 20 percent and a median household income of $24,000—less than half of California’s $57,000 median.

Fewer than half the area’s residents have completed high school and the official poverty rate stands at over 30 percent. Roughly 40 percent of South Central’s 1.5 million residents are black; 60 percent are Latino. Many of the area’s residents provide the labor for the factories that operate directly south and east of downtown LA (mostly apparel and textiles factories). Others work in light manufacturing, sales and office work, which frequently provide no health insurance benefits.