Health Care Is a Right: Annie Lee on Medicaid, Equity, and Staying in the Room

Christy Belz welcomes Annie H. Lee, JD — president and CEO of Colorado Access, the state’s largest Medicaid health plan, and the first woman and first person of color to lead the organization. A first-generation Korean-American and daughter of immigrants, Annie’s path from watching her family navigate a health care system not built for them to running one of Colorado’s most consequential health organizations is equal parts personal and profound. In a moment when Medicaid funding, provider access, and health equity are all under threat, Annie brings clarity, courage, and a systems thinker’s eye to what’s at stake — and what each of us can do about it.

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Key Takeaways 

  • Your origin story shapes your purpose: Annie didn’t find health equity through a policy paper — she found it at the grocery store watching her mother struggle to be understood, then imagining that same mother trying to communicate her symptoms to a doctor. That fear became her career.
  • Health care requires a sacred exchange: When language, culture, or bias interrupts the moment between patient and provider, the damage runs deep. Annie watched it happen with her grandmother in Houston first — and spent the rest of her life making sure it happened less.
  • Know who Medicaid actually serves: Most enrollees work. The rest are caregivers, people with disabilities, kids in poverty, and people in transition. Once you know who’s actually in the program, the word “deserve” gets a lot harder to throw around.
  • Coalitions are the only path forward: Annie and Donna Lynne aren’t talking big picture in the abstract — they’re working through enrollment funding, briefing the next governor, and building the cross-org advocacy the moment demands. No single organization absorbs what’s coming alone.
  • From whatever seat you have, use your voice: Vote. Call your legislator. Don’t look away just because it’s heavy. Health care is a right — and that principle only holds if people are willing to say it out loud.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Connect with Annie H. Lee, JD: 

Website: https://www.coaccess.com 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annie-l-70a9a938 

Connect with Christy Belz: 

Website: https://christybelz.com 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christybelz/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christybelzcoach/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChristyBelzCoach/ 

UPROOT Course: https://christybelz.com/uproot/