Life Expectancy in Northwest Pasadena Likely Lower than Rest of City

After quoting Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s indictment that “‘injustice in health care is the most shocking and inhumane,” Pasadena’s public health director Wednesday declared that if you live in the largely-minority Northwest Pasadena “you probably have a lower life expectancy than if you live in other parts of town.”

‘“It’s not your genetic code, it’s your zip code in America that determines how long you are going to live,” Dr. Eric Walsh told the city’s Human Services Commission.

Walsh reported that Pasadena has a higher proportion of uninsured than the United States national average with an estimated 27,986 uninsured individuals living in Pasadena last year.

With the rollout of the Affordable Care Act, 9,449 Pasadena residents became newly eligible for Medi-Cal, 11,414 became eligible for the private insurance on the exchange, but 7,123 are classified as residually uninsured according to a new study.

“The group that is of most concern is the residually uninsured. Who are they? People who are undocumented,” Walsh said told the commission. “If you’re undocumented you can’t even buy on the exchange. You can buy auto insurance but you can’t buy health insurance. It’s also the group of people who come in and out of prison or jail.”

In a presentation named “Live Well Pasadena” Walsh presented the Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP) that included input from several health experts in the city.

As a part of Pasadena Public Health’s department pursuit to obtain accreditation, the Department hosted a dialogue with community partners on how to improve the overall well-being and health of city residents. The five-year plan is a collaborative effort to redress Pasadena’s most immediate health concerns.

One of the goals of the plan is to increase equitable access to high quality primary and specialty care services inside the city of Pasadena.

Dr. Walsh quoted Martin Luther King saying ‘Of all the forms of inequality injustice in health care is the most shocking an inhumane.’

Even with the medical services provided by Crown city, the dispensary at hospital, Community Health Alliance of Pasadena (CHAP), and the Pasadena Health center 25,000 people found it somewhat to very difficult to obtain medical care when needed in a 2007 survey.

“Why would 65-year-olds not be able to get Medicare in Pasadena? It is because a higher percentage of people are here without documentation,” Walsh said.

Walsh said the goals of CHIP included reducing the number of uninsured individuals by creating more events to increase awareness. He also hopes to increase availability of clinic resources and increase clinic capacity.

The former St. Luke medical center could be one step toward providing more health access as the developers have plans to create an urgent care, 23-hour birthing center, primary care and specialty care clinics as well as an outpatient surgery center.

Walsh said they would collaborate with the Bill Moore Community health clinic on Lake Avenue to increase flexibility of clinic hours and capacity.

“Anybody we send to Bill Moore Clinic absolutely loves the service they get. We want to strengthen them and expand their ability to do that,” Walsh said.

While accreditation for the Public Health Department is not required at this time, Walsh said it was a good step to take because in the future health departments without accreditation may not be eligible for grants.

“What we try to do with public health is to lower the resistance against which people push to be healthy because its not the same fore everyone and its very place based,” Walsh said.