From Appalachia to LA, where the health care poor are

In one of the most gilded areas of the nation, where palm trees and mansions line the hills overlooking the ocean beaches, so many people lined up to get free health care that hundreds had to be turned away. That would be Los Angeles.

And the group of medical care providers that came out to donate the free care made its name in Appalachia. Now that should tell you something, notes columnist Steve Lopez in the Los Angeles Times.

"It absolutely reinforced what we know on how overwhelmed our facilities are: The current system of health care in the United States is broken," said Carol Meyer, chief network officer of the Los Angeles County of Health Services.

Yet... Many Americans still don't get the need to change up our health care system. A Gallup poll out today shows slightly more Americans - 49 percent -  disapprove of the president's handling of health care reform than approve. Still, the president hasn't give up. Fresh out of a town hall in New Hampshire, he'll be hitting the country's western heartland for a series of health care town halls of his own, including  Colorado and Montana, on Friday and Saturday.

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