October 14, 2021

By Julianne Malveaux

NNPA Newswire Contributor

I had not planned to have a policy conversation when I boarded my connecting flight from Detroit to DC. But the young white woman, totally professionally dressed, seemed to want my ear. She was coming to Washington to do "advocacy," she said, around workplace flexibility and "reimagining work." I thought girlie just wanted to hear herself talk, so my responses were minimal – um hum, okay. But I was more interested when she wove her policy thoughts into her own story – a young mom who COVID challenged to ensure that her children didn't fall behind.

The exchange sustained us for the scant hour or so of the flight, but I went another perspective as we began to exit the plane. We were in row 15, just five rows out of first class. As we left, I observed several women, mostly Black and Latina, and one African man, frantically cleaning the plane's first-class cabin. It was clear that they were also waiting for the rest of us to get off the plane so they could go to the back and continue to clean.

The airlines promise cleaning between flights, and these folks were doing their jobs. Watching them, though, made it clear that the flexibility my seatmate was advocating for is not flexibility that trickles down. Those who write, talk, think, and compute for a living have the privilege of flexibility. Those of us who clean, sit behind a cash register, pick up garbage, or more, don't have the same benefit of flexibility. Too much of the policy conversation centers around providing flexibility for some. What accommodations are we prepared to offer others?

For example, at hotels these days, guests are told that we should sleep on the same sheets and use the same towels for days, only asking for housekeeping services when we need them. But when we do not have housekeeping services, there's a sister who has less work. She can't clean our rooms from home, so her work week, once 40 hours or more, is now shortened. Her paycheck is smaller. Her benefits may disappear. Where is flexibility for her?

Our policy lens is distorted by our privilege and class situation. Desk jockeys advocate for desk jockeys, folks who can easily do their jobs from their desk or the office. Folks who can’t desk jock or advocate are left on their own. Too many of those who don’t’ have the luxury of flexible work are Black or Brown. A conversation about flexible work reeks of privilege and sidelines too many in the labor force.

According to the Brookings Institute’s Dr. Kristin Broady, about 13.4 percent of the workforce teleworked. Nearly a third of Asian American workers teleworked, compared to 12.4 percent of whites, 11.2 percent of Black people, and a scant 7.9 percent of Chicano/Latinx people. I'm not casting any shade on Asian American workers. Still, I'm wondering about other workers and how we reimagine work for those who aren't sitting at the policy table.

Simple arithmetic suggests that when we pay people more, we get more effort, that many won't mind the three-day workweek if they can be paid for it. Some of the workers, most of whom are women, won't mind spending more time engaged in their children's education, perhaps volunteering at their schools. Others might like the time to upgrade their skills, possibly enrolling in classes that augment their already proven skills with management possibilities. Or they might choose to chill, work less complicated, and embrace the notion that their lives should only be dictated by work and survival.

Predatory capitalism extracts surplus value from workers, exploiting them because they have no choice but to work at substandard conditions for the capitalists to maximize their profits. Covid reminded us of our interdependence, of the many ways we must rely on each other. For many privileged workers, it has meant that the terms and conditions of their work can be reexamined. What about the workers we rely on for our health care, transportation services, grocery shelving, and more. It will be a classist tragedy if the few folks at the top only enjoy workplace flexibility. Workplace flexibility, and the pay that goes with it, must also be a privilege of those at the bottom.

Dr. Julianne Malveaux is an economist, author and Dean of the College of Ethnic Studies at Cal State, LA. Reach her @ juliannemalveaux.com.

September 09, 2021

By Dr. Elaine Batchlor

In January, I became one of more than 1,500 MLK Community Healthcare staff and physicians  to receive both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.  The vaccines were administered in an atmosphere of great joy and relief in our hospital’s cafeteria.  We know how important this is.  Upstairs, our hospital beds were filled with COVID patients.

Over the last three months, South Los Angeles has endured a surge of COVID unlike any other.  Our small community hospital had more COVID patients than hospitals three to four times our size. 

I’m proud of how our team adapted to take care of so many patients. We converted an entire floor of the hospital into an intensive care unit. We never ran out of supplies; when we needed more oxygen, a staff member drove hours to get it. We provided free and fast telemedicine and education to our community. 

I’m most proud of the compassion and commitment our nurses and doctors displayed throughout the surge. We cheered when patients left our hospital. We cried with family members when they did not.

We also spoke out. The surge drew national and global media attention. We used this as an opportunity to talk about the real reason COVID hit South L.A. so hard: this community’s decades-long lack of access to quality health care, compounded by other social determinants of health.

Even before COVID, our community had an epidemic of chronic disease. Conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and obesity make COVID outcomes worse. Eighty-two percent of our hospitalized COVID patients had one of these conditions, and 56% suffered from two or more.

South L.A. is sick because we have a shortage of 1,200 doctors, or 10 times fewer doctors than the average community.  The doctor shortage has everything to do with the way our separate and unequal health care system pays them.  Specifically, the public insurance our community largely relies on pays a fraction of what commercial insurance pays.  So providers can’t afford to work here.

We need to use COVID-19 to urge our policymakers to address these systemic inequities.  We don’t want our community to be the epicenter of the next pandemic because we failed to act on the lessons of this one.

First, we need to attract health care providers to South L.A. That means policy changes that correct the imbalance in the way care is paid for in underserved communities.

Consider that imbalance: For an emergency visit today, private insurance pays $2,000 on average.  Medicare pays $650.  But Medi-Cal - which is the insurance that most of our patients use - pays $150 for the same visit and the same care.

Medi-Cal pays providers even worse for care that takes place outside of a hospital.  A primary care doctor who works to prevent and improve the chronic illnesses that drive COVID can’t make ends meet here. 

California needs to bring Medi-Cal reimbursements up to par with Medicare. This will make it possible for more providers to practice in communities like ours. 

Secondly, we need a system that invests more in community-based care. Right now, the healthcare system spends enough on hospital care and not enough on outpatient prevention and disease management-- health screenings and maintenance with primary care doctors and disease management with specialists. To improve the health of our community, we need investment in community-based care.

At MLK Community Healthcare, we’ve started a medical group that provides high quality preventive and specialty care. But, we can’t sustain it within the current payment system. Our investments must be matched by adequate reimbursement for services. 

Finally, we need medical residency programs and education, especially for doctors of color.   Physicians who look like us and understand us can go a long way toward overcoming mistrust and bringing better care to our community.

We need all this because COVID will likely not be the last pandemic we see. It may be the first, however, to truly illustrate how interconnected we are. 

COVID has demonstrated that we are all impacted by diseases that disproportionately attack our most vulnerable. South L.A. is home to our essential workers - grocery store clerks, bus and truck drivers, security guards, electricians and construction workers, nurses and home care providers.  They are critical to the food everyone eats, the services everyone receives, and the work we all do.  These community members can’t “shelter in place” - too many people depend on them. And we all come in contact with them.

So if our community is sick, it is a problem for our entire society. 

In the short term, we should all get vaccinated. I’ve reviewed the research and I believe the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are safe and effective.  Please visit our website - www.mlkch.org - to find out more about the vaccines and where to go to get one. 

In the longer term, we need to roll up our sleeves and advocate for our communities. Talk with your friends and family about the need for better healthcare and how we can get there. Write your representatives. Speak out on the need for health equity. 

We are all connected. Working together, we can emerge from this pandemic as a powerful force for change and improve the health of South L.A.

September 09, 2021

By Congressmember Karen Bass

At the beginning of the pandemic, we knew our communities would be the hardest hit -- and when we fought to ensure resources were made available to fight the virus, we had to make sure that assistance made it to our communities.

When vaccines began to roll out, we knew that we would need a full-court press to ensure that our communities had access to these life-saving shots. Even with our efforts, we’re still not where we need to be. Unvaccinated African Americans and other people of color are seeing steep rises in infections and hospitalization from COVID-19.

We’ve read this script before – and lived it. When hard times befall America, people of color and lower income folks generally are disproportionately impacted.

In the case of COVID-19, the only way to change this story is to get vaccinated.

I understand hesitancy. Our country’s history is full of incidents where Black people were unfairly, unethically, and some might argue criminally treated by the medical system.

I, too, was hesitant to get vaccinated at first because I thought the whole thing was rushed. But when I investigated it a bit more and consulted medical professionals, I found that the vaccine trials were rigorously controlled and though this variant of the virus is new, the COVID virus have been with us for years and research on the virus has been ongoing for more than a decade.

On top of that, one of the most effective vaccines was developed with the help of a young African American immunologist at the National Institute of Health, Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett.

The long and short of it is, we need to get vaccinated.

As you read this, Black elected officials at every level of government – in Congress, in the State House, at the county level and on the city council – are coming together to ensure that our folks have correct information about the shot and can easily access it.

That doesn’t mean you need to come to us – we’re going to come to you. We’re continuing grassroots door to door efforts, hosting pop up vaccination tents at neighborhood events, and more to ensure that this pandemic is finally ended.

Don’t believe the hype. The vaccines are scientifically proven safe and effective and will protect you from this virus. That’s not all you need to do to stay healthy, though. We want you to stay well. For that, you need coverage.

Right now, Covered California, the state agency that administers the Affordable Care Act – also known as Obamacare – is offering health insurance that is high quality and low-cost to tens of thousands of Southern Californians.

Residents who were previously shut out of health insurance and the often life-saving medical and mental health care it provides because monthly premiums were too high can now get more financial assistance than ever before thanks to the American Rescue Plan, the economic stimulus and virus-fighting legislation that my Democratic colleagues and I passed so that President Biden could sign it into law.

The American Rescue Plan provides the most significant savings for consumers since the Affordable Care Act began, but in order for many people to make the most of those savings, they need to act as soon as possible. Covered California estimates the new financial assistance can directly help 2.5 million Californians — including more than 1.1 million people in Los Angeles County.

The most recent data from Covered California shows that 740,000 of its 1.6 million enrollees are signed up in quality plans that cost $1 per month.

Health care is personal to me. As a former hospital emergency room Physician Assistant, I saw first-hand how a lack of health insurance prevented people from getting quality and critical medical care. When people don’t come to the hospital because they aren’t covered or can’t afford the care they need, they wait until it’s too late to get life-saving help.

Your health and our community’s wellness can not wait.

So please get vaccinated and if you don’t have health coverage, sign up for health insurance through Covered California today.

Together, we can get healthy and stay healthy.