Ohio Water Partnership

OAHP member plans, including Paramount, know that the most important ingredient to a strong healthcare system is healthy people – and there is nothing more essential to our health than clean water.

Paramount has long history of working on issues that affect the most vulnerable among us. We believe access to clean water is a human right for Ohioans in every community, and that’s why I am so proud to be part of this effort.

Clean water is one of the core social determinants of health. We know that underserved communities are more likely to be without clean water, just as they are more likely to have insufficient access to healthy food, adequate shelter, reliable transportation and basic services. Paramount and all of the OAHP member plans are committed to addressing these most basic needs and the individuals whom we serve deserve no less.

Paramount is headquartered in northwest Ohio, which remembers what it is like to be without clean water throughout the entire community. Just seven years ago, many residents couldn’t turn our taps for a cold drink or a hot shower because of contamination from harmful algal blooms.

Since then Gov. DeWine has engaged stakeholders through the H2Ohio program, which incentivizes and compensates farmers for best management practices that will protect the water quality of Lake Erie and other bodies of water.

But we know that protecting water quality is a long game. It took a long time to create the conditions that have threatened our water, and it will take a concentrated effort to address it. That is why it is so important to have the different partners come together as part of the Ohio Water Partnership.

Bringing the business community, agriculture, beverage producers and so many others together to put a stake in the ground on water quality is exactly what is needed to address this complex and important issue. We are proud to be part of this, and we are ready to get to work.