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  3. Affordable Health Care…for all

Affordable Health Care…for all

A homeless man pushes a shopping cart full of his belongings across an intersection in the Skid Row area of Los Angeles, Friday, March 29, 2013. The area, originally agricultural until the 1870s when railroads first entered Los Angeles, has maintained a transient nature through the years from the influxes of short-term workers, migrants fleeing economic hardship during the Great Depression, military personnel during World War II and the Vietnam conflict, and low-skilled workers with limited transportation options who need to remain close to the city's core, according to the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. (Jae Hong / Associated Press)
A homeless man pushes a shopping cart full of his belongings across an intersection in the Skid Row area of Los Angeles, Friday, March 29, 2013. The area, originally agricultural until the 1870s when railroads first entered Los Angeles, has maintained a transient nature through the years from the influxes of short-term workers, migrants fleeing economic hardship during the Great Depression, military personnel during World War II and the Vietnam conflict, and low-skilled workers with limited transportation options who need to remain close to the city's core, according to the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. (Jae Hong / Associated Press)

With all the media hype over new the health care law and glitches in computers, one voice is rarely heard:the voice of homeless people. The new health care laws provide an expansion of Medicaid allowing potentially 1.2 million homeless people eligible for coverage.

Communities know what they need for success: safe housing and access to health care. As America makes its way through the politics and the whining over Affordable Health Care implementation, we can rejoice that those who are most vulnerable among us may finally have a chance to heal from injury and illness. Outreach workers in a downtrodden area of Los Angeles work every day to offer hope for that healing.

(S-R archive photo: A homeless man pushes a shopping cart full of his belongings across an intersection in the Skid Row area of Los Angeles, Friday, March 29, 2013. The area, originally agricultural until the 1870s when railroads first entered Los Angeles, has maintained a transient nature.)

Spokesman-Review features writer Rebecca Nappi, along with writer Catherine Johnston of Olympia, Wash., discuss here issues facing aging boomers, seniors and those experiencing serious illness, dying, death and other forms of loss.