Medical coalition to present regional meeting

Medical coalition to present regional meeting

August 16, 2001

The Colorado Coalition for the Medically Under-served (CCMU) will unveil the framework of a plan to ensure health care coverage for all Coloradoans at a Southwest Colorado regional luncheon meeting in Durango on Wednesday, Aug. 29.

The public meeting will be held at 4 p.m., at Christ the King Lutheran Church, 495 Florida Road. It will be hosted by CCMU and the San Juan Basin Health Department.

CCMU is a statewide coalition of over 200 organizations and individuals who are committed to achieving affordable health insurance and access to quality health care for all Coloradoans by the year 2007. The coalition is a program of the Colorado Medical Society Foundation and is supported by The Colorado Trust and the Colorado Medical Society.

CCMU representatives will present the policy framework of the Healthy Colorado Plan that has been designed based on public input from a series of town hall meetings conducted last fall.

The major features of the proposed plan include building on existing successful public and private insurance programs, using refundable tax credits to stimulate private sector purchasing and creates an affordable prescription drug option.

Based on the feedback from the next series of meetings, the framework of the plan will be refined and CCMU will then work with various stakeholders on details of the Healthy Colorado Plan.

Initially, the focus will be on the uninsured and under-insured. The proposed framework of a plan would maximize cost-effective use of limited dollars by leveraging new and existing funds to the extent possible.

For more information, contact Sam Burns at Fort Lewis College, 247-7193 or Paige Newman at the Health Department, 247-5702, Extension 242.