Insure the Uninsured Project (ITUP) and the Central Valley Health Policy Institute at California State University, Fresno will facilitate a Central Valley Regional Workgroup on Thursday, June 22nd from 8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Fresno State’s Smittcamp Alumni House.

Approximately 60 key stakeholders throughout Central California will be establishing priorities and offering solutions that are viable to the region’s uninsured.

The workgroup will focus on ways in which the San Joaquin Valley can expand access to health care for children and adults. Based on data from the 2003 California Health Interview Survey, approximately 726,000 children and adults who were uninsured for all or part of the year reside in the San Joaquin Valley, out of a total of 6.6 million uninsured nonelderly adults and children statewide.

The meeting’s agenda will include:

-A review of Insure the Uninsured Project’s findings for the Central Valley region -A discussion of efforts to cover all children in the San Joaquin Valley counties

-An update on the California state budget and legislation to expand coverage

-A discussion of opportunities and strategies to cover uninsured adults

Speakers for this event will include:

Teresa Alvarado Dorinda Ohnstead

San Joaquin Health Consortium (Kings County) California Health Collaborative

Fresno County

Joel Diringer Deborah Riordan

Diringer and Associates Central Valley Health Policy Inst.

Norma Forbes Lucien Wulsin

Fresno Healthy Communities Access Partners Insure the Uninsured Project

Brooke Fox John Zapata

Insure the Uninsured Project California Dept. of Health Services

Brooke Frost Dr. Rick Zawadski

First 5 Tulare County RTZ Associates

David Hurst

Health Plan of San Joaquin (San Joaquin County)

For more information, contact Brandie Campbell at 559.278.7940.