Cindy Ehnes of the California Depart.of Managed Healthcare

>>
Hi I'm Cindy Ehnes and I am the Director of the Department of Managed Healthcare in California
working on managed healthcare issues. But when I look at what I think are the most important
things that people can come together around, it would be recognizing the inherent dignity
and worth of each individual. Of all the things that I think ultimately really get in the
way of solving problems, it is the fact that we are able to de-humanize other people and
to put them in a position where their sorrows, their fears, their concerns and their suffering
really don't impact us because in many ways it gets too hard to care. But that, in that
resistance or distance from caring really leads us in many ways to de-humanize people
and inherently strip them of their dignities and self worth. So, of all the things that
I would hope to see happen in 2008 it would be a global recognition that every mother
cares about her children as much as I do, as much as we do. That every father trying
to earn a living and cares deeply about the ability to feed their family and that these
things don't differ. And that we must be helping people to affirm their dignity and humanity.