Podcast transcript:
Senator Andy Kim on Caregiving, Alzheimer's, and the MediKids Act
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Meet Senator Andy Kim
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Candace Dellacona: Hey, survivors. This is a first for the podcast because I am joined by United States Senator Andy Kim. As a husband, father, and a member of the sandwich generation himself, Senator Kim is bringing the caregiving conversation to Washington. We'll discuss his new MediKids initiative, why caregiving is becoming a national priority, and what families need to know.
Tune in.
Candace Dellacona: Welcome to the Sandwich Generation Survival Guide. I am your host, Candace Dellacona. Today's guest is someone who understands the sandwich generation from both sides. A son, a father, and a United States senator from the great state of New Jersey. Joining us today is Senator Andy Kim. Many of you know Senator Kim is a leading voice for families and caregivers.
Senator Kim has spoken openly about balancing life as the father of two young boys, being a spouse, helping care for his own dad with Alzheimer's, a reality that millions of Americans and all of our listeners know about. Senator Kim's experience has shaped his work in Washington, including legislation to better recognize and support caregivers, and most recently, the introduction of MediKids Act, which is designed to guarantee comprehensive healthcare coverage for every child in our country through age 26, including the 4.4 million children that currently have no insurance.
Senator Kim, welcome to the Sandwich Generation Survival Guide.
Andy Kim: Yeah. Thanks Candace for having me on.
Candace Dellacona: My pleasure.
Service and Family Roots
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Candace Dellacona: Before we talk policy, Senator, tell us a little bit about you.
Andy Kim: Yeah. First of all I'll say I'm not somebody who ever thought that I would be a United States senator, so, I don't necessarily approach it from that angle. But I'm somebody, I'm a son of immigrants, a public school kid that grew up in Jersey. My mom was a nurse, and my father was actually a medical researcher who tried to cure cancer and Alzheimer's.
And so I very much grew up in that spirit, in that environment of caring for others. My parents always said that service isn't just a job, it's a way of life. It's about how we treat other people. And now I'm a, father of a nine-year-old and a 10-year-old, and then as you mentioned, my, my father, who has Alzheimer's now no longer remembers that he tried to cure Alzheimer's over the course of his life, as Alzheimer's has erased that from his memory.
I'm somebody that is trying my best to shine a light on all this and try to think through what role that I can play, not just as a son and as a father, but also as a senator. That's really the, the push that I'm trying to make in my life.
Candace Dellacona: Yeah, yeah. I didn't realize that your father was also a researcher. It's cruelly ironic that he was a researcher for these memory impairment issues and is now suffering from one.
Andy Kim: Yeah.
Alzheimers Diagnosis Moment
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Andy Kim: It was actually in the diagnosis phase where, they were doing a memory test for him, asked him questions like, "Where were you born? Where did you grow up?" And when they asked him, like, "What did you do for a living?" That was, it was one of the more painful experiences I could see.
He just no longer could remember. He just looked at the doctor, looked at me and said, um, "I, I don't know." And that's just, again, just it's tough a- along the way to really have these moments that just feel like gut punches when you realize, no, this is really happening.
This is not just like some memory lapse as they get older. This is something much more significant. And that, those were those kinda wake-up calls that, you know, that I remember very vividly that I, I'll be honest, I wish I had paid attention to earlier, but so does everybody that goes through this.
Candace Dellacona: I think you're right. I think the universality is something that we all can relate to. And, when you talk about that, a question like that, I think we all have our experience with the gut punch and a realization washing over you that it's not just normal forgetfulness or perhaps a role reversal, where the, the parent is no longer the parent in the traditional way and the child steps into that role.
So there are so many different things that surprise us most about this caregiver role. Was there anything that surprised you about becoming a caregiver?
Thrown Into Caregiving
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Andy Kim: A couple things. I think the first thing I'll just start with is, when we got the diagnosis of Alzheimer's I guess I was thinking that there was gonna be more of a sense of like, "Okay, and here's what happens next." So many people, so many families have gone through this, and I just felt like I was still left to have to reinvent so much of that wheel.
And look, I'm a United States senator. I oversee Medicare and Medicaid. I have a lot more expertise that I can kinda tap into, but like just really seeing still how hard it was, I think it was just this constant experience of thinking, "Oh, I thought Medicare covered this," and realizing that it doesn't.
The other thing is just like I had really no runway on this i- in some ways. That we were kinda thrust into this because my father actually, he actually tripped while walking. He's always had real mobility issues. He was born with polio in Korea during the Korean War.
Didn't get care for that when he was a kid. And so he's had really difficult mobility issues, and he had an accident, broke his femur, and what I thought was really just gonna be about a physical problem ended up really exposing his cognitive decline once he was out from his home. He was living on his own, and I think kinda being in a different...
I think some, some ways he could kinda fake it when he was in his home, like kinda knew from muscle memory how to get around. But being in a new environment in the hospital and the subacute rehab just kinda scrambled his brain and just really exposed his cognitive decline. I think it really caught me off guard.
I was very surprised at how quickly I had to try to, I had to make decisions about his life. I was not a... You know, I didn't have power of attorney. I didn't have access to his bank accounts. I had really very little understanding about, how to be able to understand his means and what decisions to make.
So just the speed with which that happened just really caught me off guard. I think I had a expectation that I would be able to kinda glide into this. I would choose to be a caregiver, I guess maybe is what I say. But it's not the case. It, you don't get to determine how and when you become a caregiver and that was a really just a, a brutal awakening for me.
Candace Dellacona: I think you're right. I think so many of us wake up one day as caregivers. There's often not a runway because so much of being a caregiver is precipitated on a health event. And then when we are caregivers, I think there are so many of us feel like, we are in the sandwich. We are stuck in between and we're trying to hold it all together.
And I think in a way, caregivers are holding it all together for our country overall and for our own families. And I think within that, the point that you bring up is, not really knowing what to do next and the feeling of, in some ways being invisible, right? Because we're providing all of this care.
I think Caregiver Action Network, which is an amazing policy organization, estimated there are something like 50 billion hours of unpaid care provided annually across the nation, your care included.
Caregivers Need Visibility
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Candace Dellacona: So as a senator, why do you think it is so important to make sure that our caregivers are not continued to be overlooked?
Andy Kim: Yeah. Well, first and foremost I hear from so many families about just the struggle. Right now there's a lot of families struggling, not just caregivers, but just American families with affordability, high cost of living, other challenges out there.
And, I remember this one woman she expressed this. She says that she often feels so much anxiety in her life that it's hard for her to breathe sometimes. She just feels this weight. And when she was telling me that, I was just like: "Oh, I f- I feel that too." Like, I just k- I like, I actually have just, I catch myself having just like, really short breaths.
I feel like I'm just constantly on edge. And I was just kinda thinking through that, like, why is this happening? We're the, in the richest, most powerful country in the world, we have so many people just with so much unpredictability and uncertainty.
And look like every caregiver I talk to they're stepping up. They're doing everything that they can. It's not like they're trying to push this off onto others. We're just saying it doesn't have to be this hard, though. They just want some breathing space, some ability for them to recognize that this is not going to be, catastrophically devastating to their own lives and others.
Maiden Speech Breakthrough
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Andy Kim: But the other thing I'll just say is that I made a decision last year. In your first year in the Senate, you get to deliver one big speech. It's called your maiden speech. It's like a long-standing tradition in the Senate where you lay out what you wanna accomplish in your Senate time, et cetera.
I decided to use mine in a very personal way and used it to, for the very first time, tell my colleagues as well as, I guess, America, that my father has Alzheimer's. I hadn't spoken about it publicly before that. And something... I didn't know how it would go. Like oftentimes in politics, you're incentivized not to talk about things that you're struggling with because, I don't know, like oftentimes you're, in politics you're incentivized to just to seem like you're an impervious leader.
Like you're, you can handle all the weight of the country through difficult times. And, if you talk about things that or get emotional, people sometimes can weaponize that and say that you're being weak. But something remarkable happened, something very profound happened, which is that I had nearly every one of my colleagues come to me after the speech, and not only did they comfort me, but they almost all of them shared that, an experience that they had in their life with a, a parent of theirs or a grandparent or a cousin or an aunt or uncle or something with a child.
And it was just, that was very poignant to me. And all of them, including on both sides of the aisle, came to me and said "What can we work on together?" And then I received, thousands of messages into our office of people around the country that were sharing with me their own stories.
Many of them had never even heard of me before or knew very little about me, but they were willing to share some of the most intimate and painful memories of their life. And I think I just at that point realized, you know what? This is important. This is something that gets to the core of our humanity.
And I think it's, in this time of great division and toxicity and polarization, I think this is how we not only try to pave a way forward for caregivers and those that are ill, but I think it gives us a roadmap on how we try to heal this broader division in our country that we need to just focus on that which is most personal and most human.
We need to be willing to talk personally about our own lives so people understand who we are and where we come from. Not just politicians, not just senators, but all of us, to be able to just talk and show this isn't about some tribalism and party politics power struggle. It's about trying to help people in their time of need.
And so I think that's really what I've come down to. What I said in the speech is, I see myself not just as a caregiver to my father and to my little boys, but as a caregiver to this country, to this nation, that I learn things from being a caregiver right now that helps me do my job as a senator and vice versa. And that's something I'm trying to bring into the fold.
Candace Dellacona: First of all, Senator, that's what I heard of you. I heard that speech. I was so incredibly moved by it, and before we started recording, I'll share with the listeners, that's why I've been reaching out to you ever since. I am not one of your constituents, but I think what you said was so tender and vulnerable and so universal to all of us, because I think Rosalynn Carter once said that at some point in our lives, we're gonna be providing the care or will be receiving the care.
So I love that you're taking the sort of vitriol out of the normal sort of politicking that goes on most commonly these days, and really talking about the human aspect of it. I think it really resonated with so many people, and your good work and the policies that you're introducing are so reflective of that humanity.
I can't vote for you as a New Yorker, but I encourage those who are in New Jersey to do so.
Why Caregiving Data Matters
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Candace Dellacona: And so when you made this open sort of call and exposed what was going on in your own life, what then led you to the Multigenerational Caregiving Data Act, which by the way was sponsored by both parties.
Why does data matter so much to the government if we know we're providing the care? Fill us in on that.
Andy Kim: Yeah. Just long story short so your listeners can understand this bill. The bill is about trying to actually document, have some actual data on who identifies as a caregiver, who spends time in their life, in their daily life as a caregiver. Because the reason why I ask this is we don't actually have like real numbers that we can use from a lot of our government data, whether census data or other types of surveys.
And when you're in government, you realize so much of that the decisions that are being made, distribution of funds and other things, is really about the data, really about seeing, just these different elements of our society. That's why the census every 10 years is so important, and I encourage everybody to make sure that they are participating and playing a role to make sure everyone gets counted.
And this was something where as I was diving in, really just trying to have a sense of like how many American families are going through this? How many-- 'cause, not everybody fully recognizes that they're like part of the sandwich generation or necessarily realize that they're like a caregiver because they're just doing the work. They're just responding and trying to help take care of family, right?
And, and so when you explain to someone, they're like, "Okay do you spend X number of hours a week helping provide care or getting supplies or doing some task for a loved one?" And they're like, "Yeah." Well, then you're doing the role of a caregiver.
Like they just they're just kinda knuckled down. And so, there is that, that element. The other aspect of this is like I was literally-- I'm on both the healthcare committee as well as the aging committee, and I-- that's intentional. I wanted to focus on healthcare from birth until, till the end of your life.
And as I was trying to put together a hearing, I actually was advocating and pushed for a hearing specific on the sandwich generation. I realized that as I'm trying to make the case again, like I don't have data to try to convince some of my colleagues that like this is a, a large enough segment of the American people.
We know it qualitatively and through other studies. So that's, that's the main thing is like we need to be seen a- and we need to make noise. But the thing is, is that so often the people who are in the sandwich generation or caregiving, they don't have time to like show up at town halls.
They don't have time to like make phone calls into their member of Congress's office or send emails or notes in those ways, or come to DC to advocate. They're just barely keeping their head above, above water, right? They, They're those parents that are feeling hard to breathe. So so often they are invisible from the usual ways of how we measure participation and those that are raising their voices.
I see, I know a lot of groups and a lot of issues that are very noisy in politics, and caregiving unfortunately is not usually one that is because they're just crunching it through, which is why I'm so grateful for you and others for shining a light. So that's really what that legislation is about.
It's for us to be able to once and for all have a sense of how big of an issue and challenge we have of caregiving in this country, and for us to use that data to really come up with a fix and support for so many millions of people.
Candace Dellacona: I think too, once you recognize yourself and identify yourself as a caregiver, what it does is it opens up resources, and we're all about providing resources. Indeed, that's what the government is doing for us. So being able to quantify those numbers will really help not only identify those caregivers, but assign money to help us come up with the solutions.
And you have been so instrumental with thinking of real-life solutions for those of us in the sandwich generation, and I think it's a perfect segue to talk about your latest endeavor because, caregiving for most of us is a season in our life, whether it's raising children or advocating for older loved ones.
At a certain point, those seasons end, but when you're in it, it can feel like, like you're drowning. And a big part of caregiving is not just obviously advocating for our older loved ones, but our younger loved ones, our kids and those who are, are in our charge. So let's talk about the legislation, this really groundbreaking legislation, so it's getting national attention, as it should, and fill us in.
MediKids Explained
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Candace Dellacona: What is MediKids, Senator?
Andy Kim: Yeah, absolutely. Um, Thanks for raising it. Yeah, just the other week I, I launched the biggest piece of legislation I've ever written in my career, which is called MediKids. And long story short it provides guaranteed healthcare for every child in this country. I always say, if you can't explain your legislation to my nine-year-old boy like, it's, it- you're not talking human enough about it.
So that's how I told it to him. But it's like that my nine-year-old, and frankly any kid birth until 26 has guaranteed healthcare. Because right now we have 4.4 million kids in this country that have no health insurance. We have 23 million kids in this country who are underinsured, which means their healthcare and health insurance coverage does not cover their needs.
And so that's just-- I find that again, just to be insane, I'll be honest with you, that in the richest, most powerful country in the world, that we have, 28 roughly million kids that are uninsured or underinsured. And this has real, like real challenges. Like when we look at the problems that health, with health that kids have, whether that's chronic diseases that they have as they grow into adults.
Right now there's a mental health crisis for kids right now. There's all sorts of other challenges that we're facing. And I just, I can't believe that we are not at a point where we can just say that any child that gets sick can go see a doctor, that, any parent, they shouldn't have to worry if they lose a job and that means they, their kid will go without insurance.
That just, that shouldn't happen. So in the same way that we guarantee care towards the end of your life with Medicare, I want to create a bookend at the front of your life called MediKids that would automatically enroll every child into MediKids. Parents can opt out if they want, their own health insurance.
That's their choice. But at least we create this backstop where we can bring that number of, from 4.4 million uninsured kids down to zero.
Candace Dellacona: It's really remarkable when you think about it, Senator Kim. I think we are all bombarded with GoFundMes and these sort of collective crowdfunding sources any time there is a medical emergency, which brings out the best of us, right? Certainly, we think about others that are dealing with a health crisis or a financial crisis, and we wanna help.
But you're absolutely right. The fact that this doesn't exist already for a country as great as ours is a travesty. And legislation like this seemingly can get us back on track. So when it comes to this program in general, obviously giving families a choice, I think as you point out, which is really important for our listeners to hear, there are some people who have great insurance.
To be clear, MediKids is not going to take the place of private insurance if you opt in. Is that correct?
How MediKids Would Work
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Andy Kim: Yeah, that's right. Parents can decide if they wanna stick with their insurance, but, the main thing is again, any parent that has a kid in the NICU after birth they don't have to worry about coverage. The same way we're talking about the challenges of caregivers, like, when you have a baby like, you got a lot on your mind.
You have a lot going on. You're not always thinking of "Oh, did I fill out the form to get my kid on my insurance?" Or, "Do I know what the, what the right standard is or the process is to apply for CHIP or Medicaid?" There there's just so much going on. So just to be able to automatically enroll, you know, like in the same way that we, there's automatic enrollment into Medicare if you're, you know, as you're, as you're getting Social Security benefits.
It just takes out a lot of the friction, gets the kids covered. And again so much of-- I think every parent can agree with this. There's really nothing that hangs over all of my decisions in life more than, like, how is this gonna impact my kids? Even right now like, I'm struggling with my father.
It's been catastrophically financially difficult w- to handle caregiving with my father. And the thing that bothers me most about that is that I feel like it's pulling resources away from my investment in my kids, I can't save for their college or uh, education costs in the same way that I was planning to, and I worry that it's...
we should just not have to worry about our kids. And the other thing is that, like- like why this is good for us societally because, people ask me, "Well, why should I have to cover other kids, people's kids?" I'm like, "Look first of all we still pay for the healthcare of others.
If they're not going to the doctor and they're going to the ER, we're still paying for that as a society." But the other thing is like healthier kids mean healthier adults, which means a healthier workforce, a stronger economy, and as well as lower overall healthcare costs for our country when we go forward.
The thing that I've learned from all these experts, pediatricians and others, is that kids are not just little adults. They have their own specific healthcare needs. So what I like about Medicaid, which this MediKids is based off of, is that it is actually designed for kids. Like the early and periodic uh, you know, screenings, the diagnostics, and the treatment process that is designed for kids in a way that a lot of our employer-based is not.
The kids are a, an add-on to the employer base. It's not a healthcare insurance coverage that is specific for kids. That's why with MediKids, every child would automatically get dental coverage, vision coverage, hearing coverage, mental health coverage. Like whatever they need, they will get, which is not what we get when it comes to pretty much any other form of health insurance where dental is added and vision is added, and we have so many more kids falling through those cracks.
So that's something that I think is just so comprehensive and necessary.
Candace Dellacona: It's truly remarkable, and I think for those listening, I think it's important to point out, too, is that Medicare, which is something that, our generation, Senator, we're used to, right? It's a given. It was only created in 1967, and it became the sort of safety net that we were looking for for seniors.
And so having a similar safety net for equally vulnerable people, our kids, seems to make a heck of a lot of sense. And I love the fact that it's so comprehensive that, you're thinking about the whole person, dental and vision, and all of these things that candidly are quite expensive even for those of us who have great care.
So when you imagined this bill, who were you picturing? What was your sort of impetus for this, and what was the light bulb moment where you said, "We have to do this"?
Why He Wrote MediKids
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Andy Kim: The first thing that came to my mind is, as I mentioned, I'm not somebody who ever thought I'd be in politics. The reason I did this was because my second son, who's now nine, when he was born, he had some real health issues right out from the start. Had some real growth challenges, and I was very worried.
My wife and I were very worried. And that was what got me into to run for office, was just my concern about healthcare, what direction we were going. As I mentioned, my father was born with polio, didn't get support for his health needs until he was much older, and as a result, just always had challenges, always had difficulties that he may not have had if he had early intervention, early screenings.
And so a lot of, a lot of this is just from my own experiences. But as I've gotten to hear from so many others, especially more recently a lot of kids have lost insurance just over the last year and a half. These Medicaid cuts moving our country in the wrong direction. There's an estimate of two, up to upwards of 2 million kids that have lost CHIP or Medicaid in the last year and a half.
So that number 4.4 could very well be even higher now. And so I just would hear these parents talking about how worried they are. This mom with a, a kid with all uh, autism in New Jersey worried about whether or not the Medicaid cuts are gonna affect her. And, these parents of kids with developmental disabilities that are like, "Why do I have to recertify twice a year?
It's not like my kid's disability is changing." Like, like, this, This is just like, w- why is this becoming so hard? And so I just was like, look we should just-- we just need to end this uncertainty about kids. For all the debates that we have about healthcare in this country, about whether or not people are working jobs at and getting healthcare.
With their, with kids they're kids. They're not out there building careers. They're young, and their bodies are still developing. Their brains are developing into their 20s, which is why I, have MediKids go into the, the 20s. 'Cause for the whole period of development of your body and your mind we should make sure that you have what you need, that we set you up for that type of success and foundation.
And so the, once I kinda clicked in on that, of just saying, "You know what? We shouldn't just accept that four million kids in this country are gonna be uninsured." That's not just some remainder of the equation of capitalism. We shouldn't just say "That sucks, but that's just the way it is."
That we should actually work to drop that to zero. And the other thing I'll say, though, is not only the goal was zero, the goal was to come up with legislation that is implementable. This is not some pie in the sky messaging bill. This is doable. I built it off of a program that already exists, that covers a significant number of kids already, and has proven to work.
There's no new bureaucracy that needs to be set up, no new agency that needs to be set up. This can happen. It's just a matter of political will now. And that was really the impetus of what I was trying to do, something that brought it, the number of uninsured down to zero in a real way, and something that is actually implementable and doable for this country.
That's what MediKids is.
Candace Dellacona: That's just amazing, that the humanity part is what really was the impetus for you seeing your constituents and the people around the country with real concern. The listeners that we hear every day worried about things like preexisting conditions and the loss of a job, and with our economy being as uncertain as it is, to your point, this is doable.
And that part is what makes it so exciting.
Bipartisan Path Forward
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Candace Dellacona: Have you had any inkling on support from the other side of the aisle, whether or not you're going to receive some support from the other side?
Andy Kim: Look I first of all I, I will say I should. Like I think that this goal of, of taking care of every kid, I hear that from colleagues on both sides of the aisle.
Candace Dellacona: Yeah, we all have kids, right?
Andy Kim: Like the, like that we have to protect and that kids are our most precious, and they are. And I hear that from everybody across the political spectrum, so let's
Candace Dellacona: Let's do it
Andy Kim: talk about this.
Look I go in with my eyes wide open. I was on the floor of the Senate, saw my colleagues with my own eyes as they voted to gut the, the Medicaid, and I know the challenges that we're gonna face. But what I at least appreciate is since we launched MediKids, there is a national discussion about this now, a, a real debate.
A- and if people have disagreements, then okay, tell me your plan to bring that number of 4.4 million uninsured kids down to zero. Let's have a real debate, a- and that's what I wanted. Like that's really what is necessary here is that we need to set a goal.
I often say I, I work in what's arguably the most reactionary building in America, like the Capitol Building. Every day it's just like, feels like we're just responding to one tweet or one social media post or whatever the headlines are. What I'm trying to do is challenge us to think forward, to actually have a vision for this country. I think people are just fed up with this reactionary politics. They want a government that says what its objectives are and what we're trying to get towards.
And for me, I'm not just, I certainly have my concerns about this administration, but I'll be honest, there were over four million uninsured kids even before, Trump came back into office. So it wasn't perfect before. So I have to talk about not just what I'm against, but what I'm for, what it is that I have a vision towards, and I'm challenging my colleagues, again across the political spectrum to engage in that, that discussion with me.
Candace Dellacona: We voted for them to engage, and so I'm certainly grateful that you're bringing this messaging forward because you're right, Senator, what kind of country do we wanna live in? And this is the type of country that I certainly want to live in.
And when you think about the most vulnerable at the end of our lives and the beginning of our lives, there really shouldn't be that much we disagree on.
Andy Kim: Yeah, absolutely.
Vision for Research and Care
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Andy Kim: In the same way that look I think every kid should be in should be able to get the care that they need. I also am trying to lay out a vision for the challenges towards the end of life. I put out a mark saying I want, during my time as senator, to be a country that delivers a cure for Alzheimer's, that can make, the investments needed for medical research to address dementia and Parkinson's and ALS and other uh, you know, other i- illnesses and diseases that have robbed people of so much of their life.
I want a real solution to the, the catastrophic financial costs of long-term care and at-home care, and to be able to provide caregivers with that extra level of support that can give them some breathing space. I'm laying out things that I want to see done in this country, and that's my life's work is to try to do that and to not just respond to the headlines of today, but to lay out my own goals.
And I do believe that my goals are the goals that are shared by many Americans that are just living through this, and frankly, across the political spectrum. Alzheimer's doesn't care if you're a Democrat or Republican. You know, Caregiving is something that people have to face no matter what their political affiliation or leanings are.
These are real problems that I think if we take on in that kind of way, we can hopefully cut through the hyper-partisanship and the toxicity and hopefully actually get some things done. And I saw that here in the Senate, where there's lots of divisions that we have, but what we, one thing we were able to do as a Congress was to restore almost all of the NIH funding cuts that were proposed earlier, because I think people recognize, actually, people want cancer research.
People want Alzheimer's research because they've seen how this has helped provide medicine and cures and therapies that have helped so many people be able to live better lives. And so those are things I think that is the moonshot of our generation. I think we can be the generation that delivers a cure for Alzheimer's, real, tangible, guaranteed relief for caregivers, for parents.
Those are the things I hope to help deliver.
Final Thanks and Call to Action
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Candace Dellacona: Senator, I, I really thank you from the bottom of my heart for thinking about all of these things in such a solution-oriented way as opposed to looking for opportunities to divide. I think that these, as you point out, are all issues that we feel and we can agree on. We started at the top of the episode talking about the gut punch of, finding out a loved one has some kind of illness.
The same is true any time anything happens to one of our kids if you're a parent. And so having you be on the front lines working every day in the Senate to bring so much attention to these issues, I am so grateful for you and your advocacy. And I really wanna thank you from the bottom of my heart for being here today and sharing all of the good work that you're doing on our behalf.
Andy Kim: Yeah, absolutely. Look, thank you for what you're doing and shining a light on this. And I, your survival guide, like myself and others have benefited from just having a place to be able to turn to, to first of all know we're not alone, but two, to be able to just share and look out for one another.
And I think that that care should flow in all directions. And so, you channeled what you went through and helped support. I'm trying to do the same, and I hope others that care I hope you take a look at MediKids and spread the word and try to lift that up and just continue to say, "No, we can solve these problems. We can't just throw up our hands. We can roll up our sleeves."
Candace Dellacona: I love it, and I will be emailing both of my senators when I get off of this recording. So thank you so much, Senator Kim, for being here today.
Andy Kim: Thank you. Absolutely. Thanks for having me.
Subscribe and Resources
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Candace Dellacona: Hey, survivors. Be sure to follow and subscribe to The Sandwich Generation Survival Guide wherever you get your podcasts so you never miss an episode. We're back with new conversations on the first and third Tuesdays of every month. If you're finding value in the show, I'd be grateful if you left a five-star review and shared it with other survivors navigating this season of life known as the sandwich generation.
For resources and a full library of past episodes, visit sandwichgenerationlaw.com. Follow the conversation on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok @sandwichgenerationpodcast. Until next time, take care of yourself while surviving and hopefully thriving in the sandwich generation.
