Healthcare Reform Lessons
Lesson plans about healthcare reform can help students get a better sense of the issues, and people involved.
By Debra Karr
In recent news President Obama discusses healthcare reform and urges Congress to act quickly so that a new healthcare system can be put into place. A recent poll found that approximately half of the American people disapprove of the way the President is handling the healthcare issue. That means that approximately half of Americans do approve of President Obama's strategy. No matter what side of the fence, the United States healthcare system makes excellent lesson fodder.
If we look at all the areas that the issue of healthcare addresses, it covers a lot of ground and could easily make up an entire unit covering subject matter in social studies, math, health, language arts, art, technology and even science. Students would be able to research past presidents' stance on the issue, controversial health issues, and the costs associated with healthcare.
The batch of lessons that follow allow students to look at healthcare in the United States today, in the past, and where it might be headed in the future. These lessons take a look at individuals, political candidates, and social classes, and costs, and how all of these areas pertaining to healthcare are affected by the government. Students, through the activities in these lessons, will acquire sound, fact- based knowledge to support their arguments and strengthen their opinions.
The article "It's the Simple Things But Some Hospitals Don't Do Them" discusses statistics about the treatment of patients in hospitals, laws that affect hospital treatment of patients, and states' ranking of how patients are treated in hospitals. During this lesson students read and discuss this article, and then make lists of ailments that might affect patients their age. Students are asked how their own personal treatment has been when visiting a doctor or hospital, and then are asked to discuss the emotions that surface when having to receive medical care or maintenance. Finally, students are asked to create skits that showcase one negative hospital experience and one positive hospital experience. This lesson definitely gives students the opportunity to do research, healthcare investigation and vocabulary development. It's practical too, and utilizes creativity. I would go over the pronunciation of some of the medical terminology and ailments so students will pronounce the words correctly during the skits.
This lesson gives students practice at dealing with adult realities. Students are given a mock weekly paycheck and are asked to deduct the Medicare percentage from that paycheck. They study a graphic organizer that details what Medicare really is and how it is funded. They review an interview with Bill Moyer who discusses the harsh, economic realities that face the Medicare system as the population ages and as the Baby Boomers come of retirement age. Lastly, they select a presidential candidate, they get into groups, and they prepare a debate in their groups that supports that particular political candidate's position on the Medicare issue. Obviously this lesson is not completed in one fell swoop, as there are many steps and components to it. I do think it has a plethora of timely, practical, educational information that also aligns with state standards for social science, government, and language arts. I think it would be helpful for students to also map out a timeline of when the Medicare system began, where it is presently, and what it potentially faces in the future so that students can have a visual, linear, representation of how this system changes and has changed over the years. Students might also investigate the healthcare systems of other countries and how those healthcare systems compare to ours in the United States.
Students discuss and analyze the 2004 presidential debate between George W. Bush and John Kerry. They read the article entitled "Bush and Kerry Clash on Iraq, Economy and Health". They answer a series of questions that help them discover the difference between fact and opinion, and then they break off into groups and are held responsible for the fact checking of post debate commentary through media sources. Although this debate is old, the content is relevant to current times with the new administration. Healthcare is a current issue, and having students look at this issue and evaluate the statements of each candidate is a healthy practice in screening media fed information. I think it would be equally helpful to have students apply the same procedures and techniques in this lesson to other sets of opposing political candidates.
This lesson gives student insight into socioeconomic class and the healthcare system. After students read the article "Life at the Top in America Isn't Just Better, It's Longer,", they get into groups. Each group investigates one particular area. One group analyzes lifestyle characteristics of one of the case studies presented in the reading, while the other group analyzes health characteristics of one of the people highlighted in the article. Students provide answers to a series of thought provoking questions relevant to class, lifestyle and health characteristics. Students present their findings in their groups at the end of the lesson. This lesson teaches about class and our healthcare system in a way that helps students understand that individual lives are affected by politics. By giving students hands on research to conduct, they are using not just reading and learnign about social science, they are practicing math skills as well. There is a lot of new medical vocabulary that is introduced in this lesson. If students could be assessed on this vocabulary during various points in the lesson, I think it would make the reading easier and the research less overwhelming.
