HW # 33 - Comments from T/W teams

For Ben

Your summary of the worst aspects of health care in this country is just right. It seems that that it all comes down to the fact that many Americans are so selfish that they don't want their taxes to go towards helping everyone get better care. Just as you say we should spend money on prevention. For example, spending money on getting people to eat better and get more exercise obviously makes much more sense than huge expenditures on terminally ill patients. The corrupt health care system that is in place in America must be replaced with a system that mirrors that of Canada, France, and England(as you say). I liked the way you presented you findings in a clear & concise manner that made your argument strong. Good job.


For Natalie

I think you've summarized the problem areas concerning death and dying in our culture. You are definitely right that socialized medicine is a hard sell in this country, especially when the Republicans are the majority in the House of Representitives. I still hope we come around to having the government pay for health care instead of having it be a means of insurance and drug companies making huge profits. Your other big point about ideally having people feel that they have had fufilled lives so that when they reach the age of 75 or so, they are more accepting of death and their time to go. Staying alive on life support with no quality of life whatsoever is so depressing and such a waste. People should go home to die. Most of us wouldn't put a dying dog on life support. We would just make it as comfortable as possible. I hope everyone will hold me to this belief when my time comes.

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From Ben

"The way that dominant social practices around illness and dying connect with dominant social practices around dying has to do with making money." This quote from your post does a great job of summing up the American health care system. Although in places like England, the incentives are actually a bit more noble as far as care distribution goes, it is the perfect way to describe health care in America. Nixon said himself that making sure patients get less care is a good thing if it means more profit is getting reeled in. I also liked the way you connected the illness and dying unit to the food unit that we are doing now Good job!

From Natalie

I liked how in your last paragraph you talked about how people should be reacting. I think the big question is, why aren't they? I think though that in America you might come across more people focused on funding the army than their own insurance, because they will take their health for granted. The American mindset at the moment seems to be set more on protecting our "great" country instead of improving it. I wonder if it would be possible to convince the majority otherwise.

From Mom

I think this post captures the main points about what is wrong with health care in this country. You make the case well about its flawed focus on giving the most expensive care to the terminally ill as opposed to investing in prevention measures not only to keep people from getting sick but also to make them have more productive lives. You are obviously referring to your brother’s work in Harlem and Northern Manhattan to try to help reduce epidemic levels of childhood obesity and asthma. The fact that so many poor kids are eating badly and getting almost no exercise shows what an unfair and backwards thinking health care system we have. They are developing health problems that can last their whole lives. I think you should have added that obesity will affect the quality of their lives by making it less likely that they can participate in sports and other activities and more likely that they will be sick more often and require more expensive treatment as they get older.

From Demetri

The part of your post that made the biggest impression on me were the obesity statistics for poor kids in Manhattan. Being obease when your kid marks you for your whole life. I think you are right that it is crazy not to want to spend money to make these kids healthier instead of spending monet on ternminally ill people especiallly old ones.