Estes Valley Voice: Today, the Larimer County Commissioners will decide whether to approve UCHealth’s acquisition of the Park Hospital District, which is set to take effect Dec. 1, 2025, 944 days after voters first authorized negotiations.

When voters approved that measure in 2023, Estes Park Health had $11 million of debt. The community feared the hospital faced imminent closure. In a community where 40% of residents are 60 years of age or older, where more than four million tourists visit annually, and where the nearest hospital is an hour away, local health care isn’t optional — it’s essential.

Estes Park Health exists because this community built it. In 1968, voters created a special hospital district funded by property taxes. Donations—from people like Roger Knutsson, who gave $100,000 in memory of his wife Elizabeth—made the hospital possible. The Elizabeth Guild and generations of volunteers raised millions more over the decades to expand services and buy needed medical equipment.

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