INDIANAPOLIS | State Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary, has been chosen to lead a pair of health-related legislative study committees, House Speaker Pat Bauer announced Wednesday.

Brown, chairman of the Indiana House Public Health Committee is set this summer to head up the Select Joint Commission on Mental Health and the Health Finance Commission.

"Rep. Brown has a long history of health care advocacy in the Statehouse and was one of the key players in enacting the Healthy Indiana Plan, a state sponsored insurance program for low-income Hoosiers," Bauer, D-South Bend, said in a statement. "It is because of his unwavering commitment to this issue that he will chair both of these committees."

Legislation approved this spring tasks the Health Finance Commission with studying the status of in-home care providers and evaluating ways to encourage more Hoosiers to enroll in long-term health care plans.

Brown, meanwhile, has said he will use the commission as an avenue to pursue bringing a trauma center hospital to Northwest Indiana.

The region's most critically injured patients currently must be transported to hospitals in the Chicago area. And St. James Hospital and Health Centers in Olympia Fields, Ill. -- the Level 1 trauma center closest to Northwest Indiana -- has announced plans to close next week.

"I take my leadership role in these committees very seriously and will continue to work for an improved health care infrastructure in Indiana," Brown said.

The summer study committees will forward recommendations for the full General Assembly to consider when it reconvenes in January.