It is a great privilege and honor to be here with you tonight. We are so fortunate in Leon County to have an organization like the Capital Medical Society's We Care Network working for all of us in our community. My colleagues and I on the County Commission have grappled for years with the problem of how to ensure that basic healthcare and specialty care services are always available to uninsured and medically undeserved persons in our community. After seven years of struggle, your local government has finally come up with a workable solution, and once again we look to you to make it work.

It should be gratifying to know that your organization, the We Care Network, was way ahead of us in addressing the healthcare crisis in our community -- and in taking action -- long before your government was able to respond -- and that you, as We Care volunteers, have set an example for those of us in Government as to how the healthcare crisis must be addressed. We understand that people who are sick don't need advice, they don't need an insurance agent, and they don't need another government bureaucracy... what they need is a doctor. A man or woman with the skills and training to make a difference in their lives... to get them back on their feet, back into the workforce, back into their community, and back to their families with health and with hope. That's what you do for us... as volunteers... you give people hope... by giving freely of your talents to those of us who otherwise would despair.

You, the volunteers of the We Care Network, have set a new standard for public service in our community, by creating and supporting this organization with your professional skills in direct service to those of our neighbors who need them most. And now, after ten years of service, thousands of hours donated and millions of dollars worth of service provided, the We Care Network is joining in partnership with Leon County through the CareNet Program to create a seamless continuum of care to serve our community's neediest citizens, and thereby improving the healthcare system for us all.

On December 11, 2001, the County Commission voted unanimously to fund the CareNet as Leon County's healthcare delivery system for uninsured residents. CareNet is a public and private sector collaboration, not a health insurance plan, which is designed to deliver primary healthcare and specialty care services to uninsured residents. The primary purpose of the CareNet Program is to expand access to primary care services for uninsured and working families of Leon County. These services coordinated through the CareNet model include Leon County's Neighborhood Health Services, the Bond Community Health Center, the FAMU College of Pharmacy, Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, Tallahassee Community Hospital, the Leon County Health Department, and of course, the specialty physician volunteers of the We Care Network.

After much debate, the County Commission chose to channel public funding through the CareNet Program because of its demonstrated efficiency and, in large part, because of its existing relationship with the We Care Network. The system now uses referrals to the specialists of the We Care Network from primary care physicians at the two county health units to create a seamless continuum of care -- from diagnosis to hospitalization, surgery, pathology, anesthesiology, home healthcare, medical equipment, lab work, radiology diagnostics and more.

Our CareNet model, that you support through your volunteer efforts, is among the finest examples in the nation of how local communities, working together with existing resources and altruistic determination, can take care of their own. So the next time you see a patient referred to you through the CareNet Program in your role as a We Care Network volunteer, take a moment to reflect on the enormous contribution you are making to your community and to our society at large. And be proud... proud of your profession, proud of your community, proud of the network that you support... and that makes so much possible for all of the grateful people of Leon County, Florida. The We Care Network is the lynch pin of this whole process, and thanks to each and every one of you... it works.