People’s Community Clinic (People’s) will present the 2024 W. Neal Kocurek Award for Health Advocacy to State Rep. Toni Rose, D-Dallas, for her work in passing House Bill 12, extending Medicaid coverage for pregnant women from two months to 12 months after the baby is born. Rep. Rose will be honored during People’s annual “There’s No Such Thing as a Free Lunch” fundraising event. The luncheon will also feature a keynote panel presentation from Jewel Mullen, M.D., assistant dean at Dell Medical School and former principal deputy assistant secretary for health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and Mike Mackert, Ph.D., director of the Center for Health Communications at The University of Texas at Austin.

People’s Community Clinic is among the nation’s oldest nonprofit health clinics offering comprehensive health and wellness care to uninsured and underinsured individuals. Its mission is to improve the health of medically underserved and uninsured Central Texans by delivering high-quality, affordable health care with respect and dignity. People’s was founded in 1970 as an all-volunteer free clinic operating from a church basement near The University of Texas. Today, it is a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) with a budget of over $35 million and a staff of more than 300 serving over 20,000 patients, most of whom live below the federal poverty line. The annual luncheon is a major source of funding for the clinic’s operations and one of the largest community health fundraising events in Travis County.