Last week, Families USA awarded CCHI’s executive director, Dede de Percin, with the Health Advocate of the Year award the annual Families USA Health Action Conference.
The award, presented every year since 1998, recognizes outstanding contributions on behalf of our nation’s health care consumers and was awarded to Dede for her ongoing efforts and strong leadership to improve the quality of care and access to care for all Coloradans.
“The people that have been here before me that have gotten this award and this year’s awardees — it’s such an honor to be in that cohort. They’re people I respect and admire and they are also people I have learned so much from in my journey in health care policy,” Said de Percin in her acceptance speech. “I just can’t say enough what an honor it is. And also that I hope to keep learning and transmitting knowledge to everybody in this room. It is such a great learning community and there is no way I would be doing what I am doing without it.“
There is no one more deserving of this award than Dede. Because of her tireless work to advance access to health care in Colorado and her exceptional leadership, CCHI has, and continues to bring, a united consumer voice to the policymaking, regulatory and legislative arenas. Under her guidance, CCHI has significantly improved the health system and the private insurance market in Colorado, by, for example, successfully working to rescind medical underwriting, enact health insurance rate review laws, eliminate gender rating and ensure fair and transparent hospital charity care policies.
You can watch video of the awards ceremony on Families USA’s website. The entire ceremony is worth watching, but Dede’s portion is 32:35-44:30.
Cheers to Dede on this fantastic honor!