The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(a) The County of Los Angeles faces very grave challenges in providing health care for its residents.

(b) Almost one-half of the residents of Los Angeles County have no health insurance or rely on public programs, such as Medi-Cal for health coverage.

(c) More than 1.6 million of the 10 million residents of Los Angeles County have no health insurance. More than two million residents of Los Angeles County depend on Medi-Cal or other public programs for their health insurance and many of these Los Angeles County residents rely on the county medical system to obtain needed health care.

(d) Because of these severe demands, the county medical system faces recurrent crises and is unable to meet the needs of the residents of Los Angeles County.

(Added by Stats. 2006, Ch. 514, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2007.)