The History
UCLA Health has a storied history of turning its back on the most vulnerable patients in favor of bending the knee to
The MIC: Profit over patients by design
In 1969, the Health Policy Advisory Center (Health/PAC) coined the term “medical-industrial complex” to describe how academic medical centers grow their power and wealth, often treating poor communities as teaching material and research subjects and holding them at a distance when it comes to care.
Public money moved around using market logics
About 80% of Medi-Cal patients in LA County are enrolled in managed care run through private entities, whose main goal is to extract value, not ensure care. Are public funds still a public good if they are spent in ways that benefit the market and ignore the people needing services?
Skewed Infrastructure
West LA has about 244 hospital beds per 100,000 residents while being home to the highest concentration of wealthy citizens in LA. South LA has about 67 despite years of data showing poorer health outcomes than WLA.
Source: Los Angeles Almanac
Trained on our communities
Teaching hospitals historically rely on patients from low-income communities to train new doctors. When those patients no longer yield sufficient profit, they are implicitly deemed useless and are often disconnected from care, despite teaching universities priding themselves on “community-centered care.”
How have UCLA and HCLA contributed to the MIC?
1966
Medi-Cal begins
California launches Medi-Cal, its version of the new federal Medicaid program, promising health coverage to low-income Californians.
1970s–1980s
Cuts, managed care, and lost coverage
In 1982, California eliminates Medi-Cal coverage for “medically indigent adults,” and beginning in 1983 some 270,000 low-income adults become uninsured. A 1986 study by UCLA’s own Center for the Health Sciences found that a year after losing coverage, these former Medi-Cal patients’ health had measurably declined.
2009
UCLA Health contracts with Health Care LA
A contract with Health Care LA begins connecting UCLA specialists to Medi-Cal patients from HCLA’s network of LA County community health centers. Patients benefiting from this contract largely have complex medical needs that the public safety net cannot otherwise address.
Source: Hoodline, Sept. 2026
2018
A limited deal with LA Care
UCLA signs its first three-year contract with LA Care, another Medi-Cal insurer. However, the deal’s coverage is narrow. LA Care’s 2.2 million members are able to receive advanced care at UCLA only when deemed medically necessary. Only about 3,500 of these patients are eligible for primary care at UCLA under the current contract provisions.
Dec. 2020 – March 2021
UCLA buys Olympia Medical Center and shuts it down
On Dec. 31, 2020, Olympia Medical Center in Mid-City is purchased by UCLA Health and is set to close its doors by March 31, 2021. The community hospital was a fixture in the community since the 1940s, treating over 25,000 patients in 2019 and serving a population that was disproportionately Black, low-income, and elderly.
Despite overwhelming community support for a moratorium period to keep the hospital open for at least 6 more months, especially in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the hospital closed on schedule.
Sources: Beverly Press, Jan. 2021; Daily Bruin, Jan. 30, 2021; CBS Los Angeles, 2021
Nov. 2022
Plans to fold Olympia into UCLA Health’s neoliberal, financialized care model
UCLA unveils plans to turn the former Olympia site into a 119-bed neuropsychiatric hospital, adding capacity to the current Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA. No emergency department or general acute care will return to the neighborhood the hospital once served. Resnick historically sees a mostly white, privately insured patient population. When Olympia was closed, 0% of the ambulatory care patients at Resnick were insured through Medi-Cal, whereas more than 1/3 of Olympia patients were insured through Medi-Cal. UCLA has yet to mention if they will address this disparity.
Source: Urbanize LA, Nov. 21, 2022
2024
Expansion of UCLA Health, but not for Medi-Cal patients
On Jan. 26, UCLA Health announces it will buy West Hills Hospital and Medical Center from for-profit chain HCA Healthcare, renaming it UCLA West Valley Medical Center.
In its first reporting period under UCLA, state hospital data show Medi-Cal made up just 15.7% of inpatient revenue at West Valley Medical Center, less than half the statewide average of 36.9% and similar to UCLA Health’s historical average of 15%. Rather than using the new hospital acquisition to expand services to more Medi-Cal patients, UCLA chose to simply expand services to those who could pay the most and preserve its bottom line.
Sources: Daily Bruin, Jan. 26, 2024; Healthcare Dive; UCLA External Affairs, March 29, 2024; HCAI hospital profile; Hoodline, Sept. 2026
2025
Record growth, lowest Medi-Cal share
In FY 2024–25, UCLA Health leads every UC medical center with more than 4.1 million outpatient visits, $4.4 billion in operating revenue, and a $284 million positive net position. Yet Medi-Cal makes up just 15% of its net patient revenue, compared with about 22% at each of the other four UC health systems.
When given the opportunity to funnel resources towards expanding the safety net, provide more care to the communities it claims to serve, and help build the foundation of healthcare for all, UCLA instead chose disinvestment in social services, elimination of community fixtures, and application of market logistics to determine what resources are available to which Angelenos.
Sources: Daily Bruin, Nov. 21, 2025; Los Angeles Times, Sept. 5, 2026
June 30, 2026
The Health Care LA contract ends as both sides cannot agree on the distribution of extracted value from patients
UCLA cites “capacity issues” at Ronald Reagan. Health Care LA claims that UCLA declined to renegotiate, though UCLA claims it offered an extension that was rejected.
Both organizations with millions in revenue are posturing for a better deal, all while predominantly poor, Black and brown, and otherwise marginalized patients suffer the consequences. With lives on the line, these morally bankrupt institutions care only about how they can extract the optimal social/economic value from patients. Meanwhile, privileged patients see no interruptions to their care, solely because they are able to pay the high premiums.
Sources: Los Angeles Times, Sept. 5, 2026; Hoodline, Sept. 2026
September 2026
Ongoing pressure from both sides creates “compromise”
On Sept. 3, Health Care LA holds a press conference and announces a complaint against UCLA Health with the California Attorney General.
Sources: Health Care LA, IPA, press release, Sept. 2, 2026; Hoodline, Sept. 2026; Parriva, Sept. 5, 2026
Now
Patients Over Profit UCLA 