Seniors, healthcare workers, and relatives of Medicare recipients gathered at the Ronald Reagan State Building in downtown Los Angeles Monday to protest the closing of Adult Day Health Care (ADHC) medical centers across the state.

“Save our centers,” shouted the demonstrators as they blew whistles and noisemakers and encouraged cars to honk in solidarity with their cause.

They insisted that the centers, slated to close Dec. 1, provide an invaluable service to the sick and the elderly.

Shirley Ann Brown, a patient at one of the facilities, thought “they were joking” when she learned Monday morning that Gov. Jerry Brown had cut Medi-cal funding for the centers.

“I’ve had three strokes,” Brown said. “I’ve been going [to the centers] for over a year, and now I can walk.”

“I am a diabetic,” said Tommy Luu, another health center patient. “I need to exercise.”

Both Brown and Luu said they would have little recourse if the state closed the centers.

“I’ll be home alone, with nobody to help me do anything,” Brown said.

Luu confirmed his predicament in Mandarin, and added that there was “nowhere” he “could go” in the event Adult Day Health Care facilities close.

Salida Del Sol, an Adult Day Health Care center employee, said that closing the centers would force her to put her mother, a patient of the program, into a nursing home. 

“ADHC provides actual movement and physical therapy,” Del Sol said. She described a convalescent home as a place where the elderly “lie in bed” and “take medication.” She said that such an alternative would not provide adequate treatment for health center patients.

The cuts come as Brown scrambles to address budget woes and a $26.6 billion deficit. Asian Journal reported that the cuts “would save about $178 million through 2012.”

Back at the scene, California Assemblyman Mike Eng -- who made an appearance at the protest to show his support for the health centers -- told demonstrators that state republicans forced the impending situation.

“When [the republicans] say no to raising revenues, we are forced to make these cuts,” he said over a megaphone.

Nevertheless, protesters maintained that the governor is equally accountable for the cuts.

“Gov. Brown needs to knock it off,” Brown said. “He is taking a lot of things from people that really need it.”

Despite the state’s decision, supporters of the facilities say that there is hope for the centers.

“It’s 50/50,” said Salpy Boyajian, a board member at the Adult Day Health Care Association, when asked whether the closures were final.

She said that the Disability Rights Committee was suing the Department of Health Care Services and maintained that the health centers could stay open if the courts rule in their favor Nov. 8.

“At the end of the day, without ADHC services, no other program helps with both quantity and quality of life,” Boyajian said.”That’s something that we do.”

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