Health care alliances give a voice to the community
In the recent healthcare public forums held in Glenwood and Rifle, community members spoke passionately about their healthcare struggles while making it clear they wanted us to work together for a solution.
In those same forums, I was encouraged by the success Peak Health Alliance had in bringing down prices in Summit County and the prospects of replicating that success in Garfield County. By negotiating directly with healthcare providers and insurance carriers through Peak Health, we would be able to provide competitive rates and comprehensive plans to our community.
The momentum has been beyond encouraging. To date, groups representing more than 8,000 lives have pledged an intent to support the Peak Health initiative here in Garfield. I believe it’s because the Peak Health Alliance model ensures accountability, transparency, and a voice for residents.
With the recent news that Centura Health has walked away from this process in the southwestern part of the state, it’s more important than ever that our local hospitals and providers know how much the community is counting on Valley View Hospital and other local providers to commit to open and transparent negotiations on behalf of their patients.
Garfield and the entire Western Slope are suffering from exorbitantly high costs for care, outpacing the rest of the state and much of the country. Peak Health Alliance offers the best opportunity to secure the financial relief we have all found so elusive.
To get this done, everyone must be at the table. I encourage the leaders of Valley View and other health care providers to continue working with Peak, openly and transparently, ensuring the communities they serve have a voice in securing their healthcare future.
Steve Reynolds,
Co-chair, Health Care Committee
Club 20
Trump unleashed since no removal from office!
- Fired Joseph Maquire, the DNI, who reported the interference in our elections from Russia, and appointed Acting Richard Pernell, who is not qualified for the job, but simply a donor.
- Doing nothing about gun reform and the mass shootings; still in bed with the NRA.
- Lying every day to the American people about his proposals such as pre-existing conditions, which he has put forth a proposal to eliminate.
- Attacking supreme court judges such as Ginsberg and Sotomayor for their beliefs.
- Interfering with the rulings of the courts in criminal cases, such as his friend, Roger Stone.
- Continuing to stack the courts with people who agree with him on abortion and women’s rights.
- Continuing to roll back the regulations Obama put in place to save the environment and the planet, to try to slow down global warming.
- Blocking information getting to the Congress, such as the interference of foreign countries in our elections, and now lying to the American people that “everything is going to be okay” with the scare of the coronavirus. His only concern seems to be the stock market reports.
We now live in two realities; the one made up by Trump of alternate facts (lies) and the truth! The scariest part to me is that almost 50% of Americans are actually believing the lies. We have no assurance of getting the truth if and when the coronavirus becomes an epidemic in America.
My grandchildren will be left on the planet 20 years from now and God help them. What President Trump has done to America and is continuing to do will have lasting consequences for decades. God help us and God bless America!
Linda Carr
Eagle
Dust from mine is hazardous to health
The view from Google Earth shows that Glenwood is shaped like a trumpet, with the mouthpiece positioned directly in front of the limestone quarry. Physics teaches us that a shape that tapers from a wide end to a narrow end is called a plenum. Air and dust will naturally tend to move from the small end of a plenum to the large end, especially as the day warms.
I would also have folks note that Gypsum, also at the foot of a valley, and with its own open pit mine and sheet rock plant, is often coated with a layer of fine gypsum dust.
Then we learn about Mr. Henderson who owned the gravel pit, next to I-70 at the top of Clear Creek Canyon near Golden. Mr. Henderson died a few years ago from emphysema cause by silicosis.
Seems it is easier for young people to clear the fine dust from their lungs than older folks.
Yet another reason to not place an open pit mine upwind of your home.
John Hoffmann,
Carbondale