|
 |
JAMES KIMMEY
"TO GOOD HEALTH"
|
By Christine Imbs
For Dr. James Kimmey, being a physician means making a difference—a difference in the lives of many rather than just a few.
“There are several ways to look at patients,” he says. “You can look at them as individuals or you can look at society as the patient. Many years ago I changed my focus from individuals to society. For me, being able to help a lot of different people rather than just one at a time is very satisfying.”
As CEO of the Missouri Foundation for Health, Kimmey is perhaps the most satisfied he’s ever been. MFH is an independent, nonprofit foundation with assets totaling $1.1 billion. This makes it the largest health foundation in the state and the third largest in the country. Its main focus is on filling the gaps for the uninsured and underinsured in the 84 Missouri counties and City of St. Louis. It’s something Kimmey has worked on for most of his career.
“Missouri has 600,000 uninsured today. On August 28 that number will jump to 700,000, because of the cuts in Medicaid,” he says. “Looking on the national level, we have 45 million uninsured. That’s almost 20 percent of the population. It’s a very frustrating issue and one we simply cannot ignore.”
The reason it can’t be ignored, Kimmey says, is because today we live in a much more complex community. Everyone’s activity is interrelated. The uninsured are a good example. If we let them fall through the cracks, in the long run it will affect everyone else adversely.
“If someone cannot afford health insurance, they will not get treatment for a condition until they’re really sick, then they will end up getting free care,” he explains. “Those with insurance will then pay higher premiums. If there’s anything I’d still like to accomplish, it’s moving toward universal coverage. I believe we as a society need to accept that we should cover everyone, and then figure out ways to get there.”
Kimmey’s career in health care began as a young boy in a small town in Wisconsin. There were a couple of physicians in town, and being important people, they were role models for him. But his plan to follow in their footsteps changed after he left medical school and found himself drafted by the military. For the next five and a half years he served in public health. He found it not only challenging, but more rewarding than just practicing medicine. So, while completing his uniform service, he got a master’s degree in public health.
“From that point on, it’s just been a series of opportunities that presented themselves at the right time,” he says. “They mostly occurred when what I was doing was either completed or had plateaued, and something else looked interesting. I never really had a plan.”
Altogether the 70-year-old Kimmey says he’s worked for eight or nine different organizations in government, non-government, nonprofit and for profit situations, and has had about 16
different jobs within these organizations.
He came to St. Louis in 1987 to head St. Louis University’s Center for Health Services Education and Research. But it’s his position at MFH that he refers to as his “capstone course.”
“When I was working on my degree in public health, the capstone course was the last one you took. It pulled together everything you had done and applied it. That’s what the Foundation is for me. Everything I’ve done up to this point has prepared me for this job. I guess that’s why I’m so happy with it. And you know, I don’t think there’s been a time in the past three and a half years when I’ve felt I’d just as soon stay home.”
TalkingPOINTS
|
BORN: Boscobel, Wis.
EDUCATION: Medical degree from University
of Wisconsin, 1961; master’s degree in
public health from University of California, Berkley, 1967.
FAMILY: Wife, Sarah; two children, Elisabeth and Jay; one granddaughter.
HOBBIES: Singing in the choir at Christ
Church Cathedral and history.
FAVORITE BOOKS: All five books by Edward Rutherfurd. He combines history with
good stories.
WHAT YOU LIKE ABOUT ST. LOUIS: It’s a
manageable community with wonderful
cultural resources. |
|
|
|
|
|
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
|
