Dr. Nicholas Andreadis, though now retired, has worn many hats in his twenty-year Kalamazoo residency, tempering his perspective of the Affordable Care Act\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s adoption in this community. Prior to his service at Western Michigan University and his ultimate position as Dean of the University\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Lee Honors College, he trained and, consequently, practiced as a medical physician. I met with Dr. Andreadis at Oakland Drive\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Water Street Coffee Joint\u00e2\u20ac\u201da space of diverse, morning coffee-drinkers that likely reflects a portion of the community affected by Enroll Kalamazoo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s efforts. In reflecting upon his motivations to partner with this coalition as an independent volunteer, Dr. Andreadis noted that the most rewarding dimension of his contribution was engaging with Kalamazoo residents such as these. He remarked that despite early \u00e2\u20ac\u0153uncertainty\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that accompanied the novelty of the legislation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reforms, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153[the newly enrolled] were uniformly thrilled. I mean, they were a little scared\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 they had to express some of their vulnerabilities. But, some of them were moved to tears. Others were just thankful that there were people there who care about them\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6So you had this surrounding rhetoric from politicians on all sides and then you had the real people.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d A sense of security and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153dignity\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that accompanies this elation in possessing health insurance, he believes, indicates a successful beginning in a changing health care landscape.<\/p>\n
Yet, Dr. Andreadis conceded that the advent of more equitable access to care must be supplemented with educational measures aimed to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153empower\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the newly insured \u00e2\u20ac\u0153to take care of themselves.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d These efforts to engage the community with its health, he asserted, will likely function in three ways: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6you have this passive education, which has a place\u00e2\u20ac\u201da small place in my mind\u00e2\u20ac\u201d, then you have an active participation by people mentoring,…and then you have to have some policy and systems changes.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d The alliance of these tiered educational efforts, he purports, can not only improve the ease in which newly insured residents navigate the current health system, but will, furthermore, better the circumstances determining community-wide ability to live in health. Yet, language\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand, more broadly, communication\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwill certainly be a barrier in conducting these changes in public sentiment and structure. Indeed, Dr. Andreadis articulated, that consideration of both \u00e2\u20ac\u0153language translation\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153cultural translation,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in conjunction with an effort of care providers to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153understand what motivates their patient to change\u00e2\u20ac\u009d will result in fairer, higher-quality health care.<\/p>\n
However, most fundamentally, Dr. Andreadis emphasized the necessity of collective action and participation\u00e2\u20ac\u201dmuch like that which is occurring in the Enroll Kalamazoo coalition\u00e2\u20ac\u201dto enhance access to and equitability of health care. Indeed, he notes that the Kalamazoo community\u00e2\u20ac\u201d and certainly its health\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwill benefit from the engagement of all, diverse residents: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153…if we begin to create systems that marginalize or reinforce marginalization, then we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re losing assets. So, from a perspective of…complex problem solving\u00e2\u20ac\u201dproblem solving that needs everyone engaged\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwe have to move forward.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An interview with Dr. Nick Andreadis, a retired community leader and medical doctor who currently works with Enroll Kalamazoo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":205,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180\/revisions\/205"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.kzoo.edu\/acastorieskzoo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}