By Barbara Anderson
The Fresno BeeDecember 31, 2013 Updated 22 hours ago



Fresno County officials asked a judge Tuesday to quash a legal document that has required the county to provide health care for undocumented immigrants for the past 29 years.

It could be the county's first step toward ending a $20 million health-care contract with Community Medical Centers for the indigent and undocumented immigrants. But on Tuesday the county faced opposition in its bid to dissolve the injunction that requires the health care.

Fresno lawyer Jerome Behrens, who represented the county, said a loss of $14 million in state funds makes it impossible for the county to continue providing the care this year. State law also does not force counties to provide care to undocumented immigrants, he said.

Behrens said ending the injunction was a matter of urgency. "This affects the entire budget of the county," he said, and asked Superior Court Judge Donald S. Black to let the hearing proceed.

The county will have to cut other public-health programs if it is forced to continue providing health care to undocumented immigrants, he said.

About 4,500 to 5,000 undocumented immigrants receive care through the county contract.

But Black questioned why the county needed an immediate ruling, since it "waited until the 11th hour to bring it up."

Clinica Sierra Vista, which operates community health centers in Fresno, had asked to intervene in the case, and Black continued the hearing at Clinica's request. Tuesday's hearing was a continuation of a Dec. 19 hearing. Clinica argued that it learned then of the county's motion and had not had time to prepare a case. Black set a new hearing date for Feb. 26.

Behrens argued that Clinica should not be a party to the case. The 1984 injunction was brought by Sequoia Community Health Foundation, a now defunct agency, he said. But Black found Clinica, a Bakersfield-based health organization that took over operation of Sequoia clinics in Fresno in 2008 when Sequoia was in bankruptcy, does have legal standing.

R. Mona Tawatao, a lawyer with the nonprofit Western Center on Law & Poverty who is representing Clinica, argued that the interests of Clinica are the same Sequoia's when the injunction was ordered 29 years ago.

Tawatao said thousands of people would be affected and the county is obligated by law to hold public hearings before ending care for undocumented immigrants.

http://www.modbee.com/2013/12/31/311...alth-care.html