PROVIDENCE -- Ahead of her plans to push a package of health-care bills in the upcoming legislative session, Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts said a new health-care advisory group will meet Friday.

Roberts calls it Mission: Healthy RI and it will draw from the medical community, the insurance industry, hospitals, business owners, labor leaders, consumers, and others, a news release said today.

The group's first meeting is Friday from 7:30 to 9 a.m. at the Business Innovation Factory at the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation's Valley Street offices.

"Inaction is not an option for the future of health care in Rhode Island," Roberts wrote in a letter to invitees. "The single theme I hear most often when listening to Rhode Islanders is that the stakes are too high to sit by and watch. We cannot stand by passively as more small business owners see their premiums rise at unsustainable rates and more Rhode Island families find themselves uninsured."

Invitations were sent out to "key stakeholders" but members of the public are encouraged to attend and participate. All sessions will be Friday mornings from 7:30 to 9. Sessions are scheduled for Nov. 16 and 30, Dec. 7, 14 and 21, and Jan. 4, 11 and 18.

-- projo.com staff writer Michael P. McKinney