As I moved through college, I never thought of pursuing a career in health care. I focused on completing my education and beginning a career in public accounting with what was then one of the “Big Eight” accounting firms. The Chicago office, where I started, served some recognizable big-name, international companies, as well as some large banks and saving and loan institutions. We also served health care.

The year was 1973. Medicare was just six years old, and the impact that it would have on the health care industry was only beginning to be appreciated. Many of the people in my office wanted little to do with health care. They didn’t view it as a potential future career. I was fortunate enough to become associated with those of a different opinion. Other than the minor surgery I had had in the third grade, it was my first memorable exposure to health care.

The complexity of health care drew me in: the reimbursement mechanisms; the web of relationships among institutions, physicians, caregivers, payers and government; the social construct of health care as a right juxtaposed with accountability for self and the economic reality of keeping the social promise. Upon the passage of Medicare, President Lyndon Johnson commented, “Because the need for this action is plain, and it is so clear indeed that we marvel not simply at the passage of this bill, but what we marvel at is that it took so many years to pass it.”

My early draw to health care was its complexity, but what has kept me in this industry for four decades is what health care can accomplish. Health care connects to people at some of our most vulnerable life moments. Health care represents healing, hope and compassion. At its core, health care is people caring for people.

At St. Mary’s Health System in Evansville, our associates and physicians strive every day to deliver the best possible patient experience of high quality, efficient, effective and personal care. It sounds simple. And it is. But it is difficult to execute in an increasingly regulated, competitive and technical environment. We have been successful at St. Mary’s, and I am proud to have been associated these past 22 years with this Catholic health care ministry.

It has been 40 years since I began my association with health care. Much has changed; much remains the same. We are entering a period of transition as we adapt to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the economic reality of unsustainable health care spending and the consequences of an aging population. As we adapt, I ask that we all take to heart the words of President Johnson in describing President Harry Truman’s efforts to achieve universal coverage: “Many men can make many proposals. Many men can draft many laws. But few have the piercing and humane eye which can see beyond the words to the people that they touch.” As we adapt, we must not lose sight of the people we care for.

May God bless our country’s leaders in health care and beyond with wisdom and compassion.