WEST COVINA — JUST once, we’d like to hear a politician running for office say let’s not reinvent the wheel when it comes to healthcare but instead let’s look at replicating successful programs.

One of those success stories is the East Valley Community Health Center in West Covina, which christened its bigger and better facility Wednesday morning. (I first wrote about this in a July blog entry)

It’s hard to find any good news these days, especially about health care. Yet this place is a good news story.

Now that they got the thing built, the problem will be: Can they keep it operating? And can they fill the building’s capacity by expanding service? They may get some new money from the county, thanks to Supervisor Gloria Molina. But the state is talking more cutbacks. Stay tuned.

Really, why can’t these healthcare clinics get funded from all that Prop. 5 money, the tax on cigarettes? The clinic operators should incorporate stop-smoking programs. That should fulfill the spirit of that law. Also, there is tobacco settlement dollars? It’s time to fund healthcare, a need that is only growing as people lose their jobs and also lose their healthcare insurance.

It’s that, or the emergency rooms get even more croweded with the uninsured.