By Sandra Hernandez, MD and Steve Heilig, MPH

The American health care system is ailing. It is inefficient, expensive, and worst of all, often inhumane. These long-recognized faults are once again receiving serious and widespread attention at the national, state, and local levels. At this point, however, the practical results of current efforts at “healthcare reform” on a broad scale remain to be seen.

San Francisco does not have to wait for broader action to improve healthcare access and quality on the local level. Local efforts have already embodied at least one aspect of true “San Francisco values” - that, as the famous Haight-Ashbury Free Clinics proclaimed exactly 40 years ago – “Healthcare is a right, not a privilege.” Read more »