Vote 'yes' on Prop. 3 to aid children's hospitals

Published online on Monday, Oct. 13, 2008

In the San Joaquin Valley, we are very familiar with the good work of Children's Hospital Central California, and its struggles to find the funding to meet the growing health needs of the region's children. It's part of a network of children's hospitals around the state that ensures all of California's children have access to quality health care.

While these hospitals have broad support from California residents, health care isn't cheap. Children's and the other 12 hospitals with the same mission desperately need funding to upgrade their facilities. Proposition 3 on the Nov. 4 ballot would provide $980 million in bonds for the eight regional hospitals and the five children's hospitals affiliated with the University of California. We urge a "yes" vote on Proposition 3.

The measure would provide up to $98 million for each of the eight regional hospitals, and the five UC children's hospitals would each get just under $39 million. This bond is an investment in the state's future.

Sponsors of Proposition 3 point out that more than a million times each year, the hospitals treat the most serious injuries and illnesses of our children, and a family's ability to pay for this care is not part of the equation. That is only right, but it takes substantial funding to pay for hospital operations and expand the facilities to meet the growing health needs in this diverse state.

We are confident this bond money will be spent properly, and you can look to the track record of the children's hospitals as evidence. The 2004 children's hospital bond measure, which passed with 58% of the vote, has been wisely spent by the hospitals.

But that money is running out and the capital needs of the children's hospitals far exceed the funds from the bond of four years ago.

You can help the hospitals in their important mission to California's children by voting "yes" on Proposition 3.