L.A. Care Health Plan, the nation’s largest publicly operated health plan serving more than 2.2 million Angelenos from low-income and marginalized communities, strongly opposes the disruption of and any attempt to defund the United States Postal Service (USPS). We see the timely delivery of the mail to be a vital part of our democracy, and its disruption could have a profound impact on the health of all Americans.
The speedy and accurate delivery of the mail is a matter of social justice and human equity, and it impacts the health and wellbeing of millions. For Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) communities in particular, these citizens rely on the mail for their medications, social security checks, government sponsored relief checks and vital healthcare related communication. For populations victimized by the digital divide, mail services are a key link to the outside world.
To deny the American people their right to full and convenient access to mail services in the middle of a pandemic is to ask them to risk their lives to vote in the upcoming election, which is a constitutionally guaranteed right that too many men and women have sacrificed their blood and treasure to secure.
Daily, we are witnessing the intentional dismantling of the USPS. We have seen the removal of mail sorting machines from distribution centers, the removal of mailboxes from neighborhood streets and an attempt to defund the postal service nationally. While the Postmaster General has claimed a temporary cessation of these activities until after the election, we do not endorse the assault on the USPS nor the resumption of those actions in November.
The efforts to disrupt the USPS weakens one of America’s most vital and venerated institutions in the middle of a pandemic. The USPS has always performed admirably, and we need that now more than ever.
We applaud the federal court that issued a temporary injunction on September 17, 2020, requiring a return to previous USPS operations. We call on all levels of government to assure the American people that the mail service will no longer be dismantled or weakened.