LAGUNA HONDA: Investing in Rebuilt Facility ‘Is the Right Thing To Do’

      In yesterday's San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco City Attorney Louise Renne and Public Health Director Mitch Katz wrote that since its founding in 1866, Laguna Honda Hospital has been a "vital component of the city's health care delivery system, providing treatment and housing for nearly 1,200 of the city's most vulnerable residents." Moreover, the need for its services will only be enhanced as the baby boomers age. By using the city's share of the national tobacco settlement to help fund Laguna Honda's proposed $437 million bond issue, they write, "we would be investing in our city's future and at the same time substantially reducing the taxpayer contribution to the proposed bonds." Making the investment today will reduce an "enormous health care burden in the next century." Renne and Katz conclude, "The Laguna Honda issue affects nearly everyone. Many of us will need skilled nursing care as we age. In effect, we are urging that San Franciscans think about Laguna Honda the way they would think about their own retirement. ... San Francisco has always tried to find a better way, not only because it may be the right thing to do, but because it is the smart thing to do. Investing in a new Laguna Honda should be no exception" (5/10).