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Monday, July 7, 2008 | 2:51 PM
Robert K. Ross, M.D.
Two weeks ago Assemblymember Joe Coto of San Jose, with the support of several ethnic minority legislators, dropped his effort to pass AB 624. This bill would have mandated racial, ethnic and other "diversity" data in grant making by a certain group of private foundations in California.
With the support of our Board of Directors, I joined a coalition of nine other foundation leaders in California to express our opposition to the bill and to craft a more workable solution for the core p...
Thursday, June 19, 2008 | 3:46 PM
Robert K. Ross, M.D.
Life is full of wonderful little surprises, and my surprise hero for this week is Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. I know that the U.S. economy is in tatters at the moment, with gas prices, food prices and unemployment rising -- while home prices and the U.S. dollar are dropping like rocks.
But his hero status has nothing to do with how he and the Fed are managing the economy and the markets. Mr. Bernanke recently appeared at a health care reform summit in the U.S. Sen...
Tuesday, June 17, 2008 | 12:06 PM
Robert K. Ross, M.D.
Last week I was honored to provide the commencement address at the UCLA School of Public Affairs. But the beauty of this moment was complicated by a difficult decision that I had to make about whether to deliver the address at all.
As you may be aware, several high-profile public officials--President Bill Clinton, retired General Wesley Clark and former California Speaker Fabian Núñez among them--declined to deliver invited commencement speeches at various University of California campuse...
Tuesday, May 27, 2008 | 4:41 PM
Robert K. Ross, M.D.
As a private foundation that has unabashedly embraced diversity and addressing the needs of communities of color, some question why The California Endowment has taken an "oppose" position to AB 624. This bill, making its way through the state Senate process after its passage in the Assembly, would mandate "diversity" reporting by a select group of foundations (i.e., foundations with greater than $250 mil in assets). The legislation was crafted by Assemblymember Joe Coto with help from the ...
Tuesday, May 20, 2008 | 5:00 PM
Anthony Wright
Guest blogging is Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, the statewide health care consumer advocacy coalition. A version of this is cross-posted at the Health Access WeBlog, at http://www.health-access.org/blogger.html
"When you come to a fork in the road, take it," said Yogi Berra.
It's a lesson that health reformers can take to heart after reading the May issue of The American Prospect, which has a special section on "the path to univ...
Thursday, May 15, 2008 | 4:40 PM
Robert K. Ross, M.D.
I, along with many others, have been patiently waiting for a signal that the leaders of Los Angeles County's government are ready to embark on a decidedly different path on finding a solution to the health care conflagration that is South Los Angeles. Much ink has already been spilled about the County's struggles to find a new operator for the closed Martin Luther King, Jr. Medical Center - now functioning as an underutilized ambulatory care center.
South Los Angeles is the most needy urba...
Wednesday, May 7, 2008 | 10:02 AM
Robert K. Ross, M.D.
On May 6, Robert K. Ross, M.D., president and CEO of The California Endowment, was named the Council on Foundation's Distinguished Grantmaker of the Year Award. Here is his acceptance speech:
I am as humbled to receive this award as I was stunned to be announced as the recipient. There is no greater honor than being recognized by one's peers.
Thank you to Steve Gunderson and the Board of Directors at the Council on Foundations. As Steve knows, a CEO can only be as succe...
Monday, April 7, 2008 | 12:00 PM
Robert K. Ross, M.D.,
Last week an ambitious effort to fix a dysfunctional California state government was launched. Titled "California Forward," the initiative features two highly regarded leaders -- one a Democrat in Leon Panetta, and the other a Republican in Tom McKernan -- joined at the hip in addressing a range of governance and fiscal challenges that plague the future of our state.
California Forward is supported by five different foundations, including the California Endowment. For more than two years, we ...
Wednesday, March 5, 2008 | 2:44 PM
Robert K. Ross, M.D.
Our Board of Directors, management team, staff and consultants spent the better part of a year methodically examining evaluation reports, environmental scans and data trends on a broad range of health issues facing California. So there is a fair amount of intellectual rigor and logic that underlies our decision to land on a decade-long "Building Healthy Communities" strategic framework.
But I wanted fill you on the other half of the decision equation here that can't be found in an envi...
Thursday, February 7, 2008 | 3:49 PM
Robert K. Ross, M.D.
This post was originally published by the Capitol Weekly on Jan. 31, 2008. It has been reprinted with permission.
It has been one year from euphoria to defeat. On the morning of January 8, 2007, I sat on the dais in Sacramento that served as the starting pistol of the comprehensive health reform debate. After years of failed attempts to significantly reform our health care system, it appeared that the combination of the Governor's and the legislature's vision and desire would finally re...
Friday, December 21, 2007 | 5:11 PM
Robert K. Ross, M.D.
I am one of those types that actually gets pretty sappy this time of year. As the year draws to a close, I become more reflective, take stock of what has occurred, what is happening, and recommit to an even more purposeful coming year. And I also reflect on what I'm thankful for in my own quiet and spiritual way.
As the year comes to a close, the top five things I am thankful for, and appreciative of, for the year 2007 (aside from family and friends, of course).
>> I would like to tha...
Monday, November 19, 2007 | 5:18 PM
Robert K. Ross, M.D.
For starters, in the spirit of the Thanksgiving week, let me pass big-time kudos to the leadership of the United Way of Greater Los Angeles for spearheading the first-ever "HomeWalk" this past Saturday. More than 3,500 souls gathered to walk to raise awareness and dollars to combat homelessness, and it was a fun and vibrant gathering. Although it was a team effort, much of the credit has to go to my friend and colleague, Elise Buik, CEO of United Way. The United Way has set its stra...
Monday, November 5, 2007 | 10:45 AM
Robert K. Ross, M.D.
Forty-two years ago, a blue-ribbon panel of civic leaders in Los Angeles issued a report in the wake of the 1965 riots in Watts. Called the McCone Commission, the report examined a range of inequities and disparities that plagued the predominantly African-American community of South Los Angeles.
In preparing to release a report that The California Endowment recently commissioned on health and health care of South Los Angeles, I took a look at the original 1965 McCone report. Lo and behold, th...
Wednesday, October 31, 2007 | 9:43 AM
Robert K. Ross, M.D.
The question for the week: if you were czar (or at least the President) who would you pick to draft a plan to fix the U.S. health system?
While you take a moment to ponder this utterly hypothetical question, I can save you the energy of exercising your brain cells, because I have the best answer. Forget about the prestigious think tanks, liberal or conservative. Forget about the high-priced consulting firms. Pass on the university hotshots with hundreds of academic publications and well-resear...
Tuesday, October 23, 2007 | 3:10 PM
Robert K. Ross, M.D.
Watching the last few weeks of California's health care reform saga reminds me of the old silent Perils of Pauline film series of the early 20th century. Pauline was the prototypical damsel-in-distress who was constantly at perilous risk, only to be saved by the veritable hero in the white hat.
Pauline, meet health reform in California.
In our latest adventure, health reform -- as declared by a Los Angeles Times story last week - was tied to the railroad tracks with a locomotive...
Tuesday, September 25, 2007 | 2:40 PM
Robert K. Ross, M.D.
In the intensifying and unrelenting drama of health reform in California, my "Hero of the Week" is the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce. While some business trade and membership organizations seem to be on the sidelines in demanding health reform, the L.A. Chamber stepped up to the plate by throwing their support behind the Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's approach this past week.
A front-page story in this past Sunday's Los Angeles Times "Financial woes jeopardize area hospitals" illustr...
Monday, September 10, 2007 | 11:54 AM
Robert K. Ross, M.D.
Yes, I am thrilled that our elected officials in Sacramento finally agreed to a budget deal, freeing them up to begin the process of addressing a broken health system in California.
Far less thrilling, however, were the veto actions taken by the Governor in order to balance the budget.
Health care for underserved populations made up roughly $400 million of the $700 million in vetoed items by the Governor - in this year, the year of health reform.
The homeless, chronically mentally ill, lo...
Thursday, August 23, 2007 | 4:27 PM
Robert K. Ross, M.D.
On Saturday, Aug. 11, I had the opportunity to visit the democracy of America's future, and through the lens of our health care system.
At the CaliforniaSpeaks event, nearly 3,500 Californians gathered in eight regions across our state to learn, discuss, debate and decide on what to do about the leading proposals on health care reform that are driving the debate in Sacramento. The sites were electronically connected in the daylong conversation, and participants gathered aro...
Monday, July 2, 2007 | 2:52 PM
Robert K. Ross, M.D.
Kudos to Tavis Smiley for orchestrating the first presidential candidates forum featuring minority journalists and hosted by a historically black university. And also to the Democratic candidates -- with their Republican counterparts slated to follow in September -- for accepting Tavis' invitation. The issues of poverty, education and health care are consistently at the top of the agenda for communities of color, and they finally received top billing.
As an advocate for the health and...
Monday, May 14, 2007 | 10:26 AM
Robert K. Ross, M.D.
As CEO of The Endowment, I can do a shameless plug every now and then in my new blog. Especially when it's a subject that interests most of us -- and affects us all.
Author Jonathan Cohn will be speaking about his new book Sick: The Untold Story of America's Health Care Crisis---and the People Who Pay the Price on May 15. The book is a riveting read from page 1. It opens with the story of Cynthia Kline, a heart attack victim who was diverted from one Boston area hospital to another because o...
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