Hudson Health Plan celebrates renovation

By FRITZ MAYER

MONTICELLO, NY — Hudson Health Plan, a not-for-profit managed care organization that serves up to 9,000 clients in Sullivan County, showed off their newly renovated offices on December 9, at a gathering that brought health care professionals from around the county and beyond to the organization’s facility on Hamilton Avenue in Monticello.

Hudson serves 92 percent of residents in the county who receive the state-sponsored health insurance programs: Medicaid Managed Care, Child Health Plus and Family Health Plus.

Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther made brief remarks assuring the organization that she would be their advocate in Albany fighting against proposed cuts to health care programs. She said that she is optimistic that with President-elect Barrack Obama taking office in January, every American would soon have access to healthcare.

Georganne Chapin, Hudson’s president and CEO, also noted that there is a financial crisis in Albany and across the nation, but warned that if the budgets of organizations such as hers are cut, people still get sick, and the healthcare provider’s responsibilities don’t diminish.

She said she too was optimistic that the current healthcare system in the country would change, not because of ideological reasons, but because the current system is so wasteful, and the country can’t afford the waste.

She quoted a New Zealand official who said while his company was facing bankruptcy in the 1970s, “We don’t have any money, so we have to think.”