Being a Good Consumer and Understanding the American Health Care System

These first two chapters were all about being a good consumer and understanding the health care system.  The readings gave many good tips on how to be a good consumer, whether it be shopping at the grocery or finding a Primary Care Physician that fits you.  Some important tips that stuck out to me were how important it is to receive advice from friends and family, but not rely on it solely, how important it is to be skeptical whether that means looking up information on the internet, or just shopping for food, and how important it is to just read. That tip came off strong to me because it is something I tend not to do; read. I do not read expiration labels before I purchase something and I often do not read contracts thoroughly. The video within the lectures was very helpful for me, learning what foods are not only healthier to buy, but cheaper to buy. Many students in the discussion forum shared the problem or having issues grocery shopping, I’m sure that video was very helpful to everyone.

The American Health Care System is often times exclusive. Many patients are left untreated due to high costs, or overcrowded Emergency Rooms. Although The Affordable Care Act is supposed to supply every American with a health care plan, many people are still struggling. I personally have many friends just out of college that will never be able to get past the deductible, but then without having the insurance get fined just as badly. Health care is a tough topic because it is something that everyone should have, and really that everyone needs, but because of the cost of health expenses, sometimes it makes it seem impossible to see a day where everyone will have a Health care plan that suits them.

I, myself, am not the best consumer. When grocery shopping, I almost always leave with something I did not intend on buying.  I never bring a list, although I have been trying to improve upon that, which makes it difficult to even leave with the products I initially needed. I also will just buy name brands rather than seeing if an off brand is just as good and cheaper. I did not look hard at all into finding a PCP, I just went to someone my aunt suggested. I was lucky, however, and love my physician. Although, I have been quite lucky, I have also had many poor experiences with physicians. It is so important to read contracts and to do as much research as possible before putting your life into someone else’s’ hands. As the reading says, it is necessary to be skeptical.

I do feel as though I put in the needed time and effort into this module. In future modules I may look back and feel as though I did not, however, I am still getting used to what this course is all about. I tried to type all of my work up first and re read it and come back to it to make sure it was worth submitting. For the next module I do want to try to submit my work sooner, I think I will be less stressed and feel as though I have less work if I am ahead rather than only a day ahead or just on time. With all the other classes I’m taking and with work and all it could be hard, but I am hopeful that I will be able to do it. The feedback was actually incredibly helpful. Knowing exactly why or why not you have received a perfect score can really help you to improve or to remember what things always need to be included.

Point-of-sale displays- I always referred to these as “check out treats” as a kid. Even just in the word itself, you can see how detrimental these things can be to your bank account. I learned that I fall for these things often and need to try harder to avoid them.

Per-capita- as I was reading I realized that I had heard this term before but never actually knew what it meant, so I looked it up online. This helped me to really just understand what the reading was saying because it was used so often.

Single-payer health care- this is a system where the government is the one insurer of health care. Again, I have heard of this before, but did not truly understand what it means. In a way it still confuses me a little. However, this definitely helped me to understand different health care systems better because I could use it as a comparison.