By Gabriela Milian for ABC 7
PANORAMA CITY, LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Elvia Mendez, a high school junior at Vaughn Next Century Learning Center in San Fernando, set up a protest with other students outside of Congressman Tony Cardenas’ office to rally for healthcare.
“At my school we have a lot of people who are low income and can’t afford the privilege of having healthcare, or even if they have healthcare they don’t know what they’re accessible to,” Mendez said.
The students reached out to local groups in the San Fernando Valley to join them in this rally. They are trying to put pressure on Congressman Cardenas to support single- payer healthcare.
This system would replace multiple public and private insurance programs with one healthcare program run by Sacramento.
“We want to let him know that we want this as his constituents and we want healthcare because believe that this is a human right,” said Betty Doumas-Toto, a volunteer for Health Care for All SFV.
ABC7 has reached out to Congressman Cardena’s office for comment on this issue, and the office has not responded.
California Governor Gavin Newsom had endorsed a bill that would’ve created a government-run health care system in California, but that bill stalled in the general assembly.
