Summit Daily file photo
Peak Health Alliance, a nonprofit health insurance purchasing cooperative, has expanded its health insurance purchasing cooperative to six more Colorado counties and one of them is Grand County.
With the recent approval by Grand County Commissioners, county government employees will receive Peak Health Alliance plans beginning on Jan. 1. Additionally, Peak’s plans will be offered to businesses and individuals in Grand County starting in 2021.
“We are the first members of the alliance outside of Summit,” Grand County Commissioner Richard Cimino said in a Monday news release announcing the expansion. “We are looking forward to lowering costs for our employees in January and expanding to all of Grand in 2021.”
Peak Health was formed as a response to rising health costs across the High Country, where premiums have ballooned since the introduction of the state’s health care exchange marketplace in 2013.
Originally funded by The Summit Foundation as a special initiative, Peak Health started in Summit County before looking to grow outward. In addition to Grand, other counties that have since joined the cooperative include Archuleta, Dolores, La Plata, Montezuma and San Juan.
“Peak’s model of locally driven strategies appealed to us because it allows us to leverage the work they’ve done while creating a local approach to affordable health care,” said Monique DiGiorgio, managing director of Local First, a nonprofit organization in Durango.
DiGiorgio also serves on the steering committee for the Southwest Health Alliance, a collaborative effort among five counties in southwest Colorado that recently joined Peak.
“The success of the Peak Health Alliance has proven that bringing communities together can lower health care costs for Colorado consumers,” said Colorado Insurance Commissioner Michael Conway.