My Interest in Healthcare Issues...

Dear MAU supporters:

Before I start submitting updates and announcements to this blog, I thought it would be a good idea to explain why I am interested in healthcare issues and what I hope to achieve.

When we moved to Boulder last fall, after a 3-year stint in a small, conservative, Southern town, I felt like a child on her first trip to Disney World. So much natural beauty to explore, so many cultural and artistic venues to visit, so many motivated people to meet, and so many opportunities to make the world a healthier, cleaner and safer home for our children (and our children's children.) Like an over-stimulated child, I wasn't sure weather to laugh or cry!

As I began sifting through the myriad of NFP's and special interest groups, I discovered that each one I visited had at least some interest in improving the healthcare situation here in Colorado, on a national level, or even on a global scale. Coincidence? Not exactly.

Looking back over my volunteering history, health-related efforts are obviously in the forefront. Since my mother's diagnosis of ovarian cancer in 1999, my daughter and I have participated at various levels of Relay For Life, the American Cancer Society's largest annual fundraiser. As the spouse of a physician, I am an active member of the American Medical Association Alliance, and have attended their leadership conference in Chicago. Following in my grandfather's footsteps, I helped promote the local free-clinic as they tried to answer the needs of working citizens who "fell through the cracks" with regard to healthcare insurance.

Now I am beginning to see my role in life not only as a mother, wife, teacher, and volunteer, but as someone who can empower others to make important changes in the healthcare system. By sharing what I've learned about healthcare reform and by helping different organizations join forces to achieve shared goals, I hope to advance the movement towards healing our dysfunctional healthcare system.

At a recent rally in Denver supporting "All Kids Covered by 2010," one of the speakers insisted that Colorado must create a system capable not only of treating our children when they are injured or sick, but we must create and uphold a system whose goal is to keep our children well. I support wholeheartedly the response of Dr. Gary VanderArk, founder of Doctors Care: "WE CAN! WE MUST! WE WILL!"

In peace, love, and justice,
Kelye Lotz-Andrews