New Year’s Day Car Caravan in Pasadena to Honor COVID-19 Victims, Advocate for Universal Healthcare

A group of activists is planning to host a car caravan to the Tournament of Roses headquarters in Pasadena early Friday to pay tribute to those who have succumbed to COVID-19, as well as to call for changes in the healthcare system, organizers said.

The organization Healthcare for All – Los Angeles is putting together “The People’s Rose Parade.” Participants plan to meet at Orangewood Center, 95 W. California Blvd., to decorate their cars before heading to Tournament House on Orange Grove Boulevard.

There, a list of guest speakers including doctors, nurses and healthcare advocates will deliver remarks, community organizer Carlos Marroquin said.

“Number one and foremost, we are going to be remembering all those people that have died due to COVID-19 — 350,000, we estimate,” he said.

At the same time, “It is critical and important to send a message to our leaders, both federal and state leaders, that some of these deaths could have been avoided by different things,” according to Marroquin.

“And one [of the problems], obviously, is the fact that people have no access to healthcare, and for us, moving forward in 2021 and beyond, it is going to be critical for leaders to take leadership and start addressing these issues that leave so many people out,” he said.

“We’re in a major crisis,” he said. “And any time you have a health crisis like this, the people that usually are left behind are the ones that have no money, no insurance, no access to a doctor.” 

Social distancing will be a priority, Marroquin said. “We had to really think hard on this because the last thing we want is to create a situation where people are going to be too close to each other. I don’t think that’s going to be the case because we’re going to be in the cars.”

Healthcare for All – Los Angeles Director Erika Feresten described the planned procession as “a memorial to pay tribute to and honor those who have passed away from COVID-19, as well as those who have been and are still suffering under our profit-first healthcare system in the United States.

“As we’ve been seeing, COVID-19 is just really highlighted the inaccurate inequities and disparities in our for-profit healthcare system,” she said. 

The event is “to pay tribute, and also to really acknowledge that there is a solution to this: Single-payer Medicare for All,” she said.

“There’s a slogan that we have: Single-payer saves money and it saves lives,” Feresten said.

The existing system isn’t working, even for many who have health insurance, she said.“…and then on top of it, they still have to pay copays and deductibles, which many people can’t afford, which makes them under-insured,” she said.

“We are in the middle of a pandemic. We need to give our people healthcare,” according to Ferester. “Now we’re the only industrialized country in the world that doesn’t have a universal healthcare system. It’s so wrong on every level.”

Attendees of Friday’s event were asked to RSVP online at  facebook.com/events/226100968890565/?acontext=%7B%22ref%22%3A%2252%22%2C%22action_history%22%3A%22[%7B%5C%22surface%5C%22%3A%5C%22share_link%5C%22%2C%5C%22mechanism%5C%22%3A%5C%22share_link%5C%22%2C%5C%22extra_data%5C%22%3A%7B%5C%22invite_link_id%5C%22%3A139136884540039%7D%7D]%22%7D.

More information on Healthcare for All – Los Angeles is available on the organization’s website at healthcareforall.org/chapters/los-angeles.