Students will review the health systems of the United States and Canada. They will identify the positive aspects of each system. They will look at the trade-offs associated with those positive aspects. In Canada, everyone has health care, but certain specialized medical services are not always available. In the United States, many people are not insured, yet for many people the access to technology and specialization is phenomenal. Which is the better choice? Students will also recognize that choosing between these two systems requires a trade-off between the economic goals of economic freedom and economic security.
In this TedTalk video, Helena Nordenstedt presents the Global Health Framework, which can help you to understand how income is related to health. Basically, low income countries tend to have a lower life expectancy than countries with higher income levels.
She shows that minority groups within countries (in all income levels) generally have a lower life expectancy than the rest of the population, but as the countries get richer and healthier, the health of the minorities also improves.
She also shows that there is no minority group in middle income and high income countries that has a life expectancy lower than the average in poor countries.
Learn how the recent resurgence of progressive massive fibrosis, the most severe form of “black lung” disease, in miners across Appalachia has been linked to the failure of coal-mine regulations to limit silica dust levels in these excerpts from Coal’s Deadly Dust | FRONTLINE, in partnership with NPR.
Examine the growing debate over childhood vaccines in this video excerpt from FRONTLINE: The Vaccine War. Vaccines have been touted as one of the most successful advances of modern medicine, yet an increasing number of parents are choosing not to vaccinate their children because of possible side effects. Learn about the debate among public health officials, doctors, and parents around vaccine safety, and hear differing perspectives on the benefits and risks of childhood vaccination, in this video segment from FRONTLINE.
This alignment results from the ALEX Health/PE COS Resource Alignment Summit.
This video highlights Rochelle James, an electrician in New York City with a good salary and a solid benefits package. Rochelle had fallen on hard financial times some years ago, but with the help of a group called Nontraditional Employment for Women, she found her current position and acquired health insurance through the Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Union. The video explains the importance of health insurance and how it can be acquired through employment. Other types of insurance (e.g., life insurance and renters insurance) are also very important, especially for those with dependents. This video also contains resources that help students engage in learning.
This resource is informational material about access to comprehensive, quality health care services and how it is important for promoting and maintaining health, preventing and managing disease, reducing unnecessary disability and premature death, and achieving health equity for all Americans. This information material would be used as a supplement to the teacher's lesson about the relationship between access to healthcare and health status.
