What I've Learned

After the past several weeks, my mindset on individual health and healthcare systems has completely changed. By having the opportunity to learn more about global health perspectives and interconnecting themes, I not only see that America’s healthcare system needs to change, but needs to stop pushing ideas on other cultures. Due to individualism and materialistic thinking, America’s culture has become one for profiteering. With such a heavy emphasis on capitalizing from healthcare, many individuals have fallen through the cracks and continue down a path of hardships with their healthcare regime. America is the wealthiest country, yet due to American exceptionalism, Americans remain prejudice and discriminative to other worldview ideas and practices.

The one reading that has stuck out to me the greatest was T. R Reid’s The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer health Care. This book not only opened my eyes to successful healthcare systems in other countries, but focuses on many of the key themes we have been discussing throughout the semester. One of which is individualism versus collectivism. When America became an individualistic society, it became evident that that our country had made a moral decision of not providing proper healthcare for all of its citizens. Instead, healthcare became a commodity, which now celebrates fear of change and selfishness. Reading Reid’s book, it became clear that other countries provide healthcare as a basic human right. A right that is distributed fairly and evenly among individuals of different class, gender, and race. In America, patients no longer need to be seen as consumers, but our future. If America had a healthcare system similar to the ones Reid focuses on in his book we may have a stronger body of people for the future.

Before coming to this class, I can honestly say I was blind to other country’s medical models. I only knew a small amount from past classes and thought America’s healthcare system was not so bad. As we read the assigned readings week to week, I became enthralled in the topics. The definition of health, disease, and illness is extremely different in each culture. The way each culture prevents, diagnoses, and cures an illness varies and is dependent on the way they have socially constructed each term. The western, biomedical model examines an individual’s physical health. By doing so, the healthcare system has become commodified and influences individuals in a way of using medicine, prescription, and expensive tests as the only way to heal us. Overall, Americans have become use to this model because our cultural values, beliefs, norms have shaped how we interpret our medical model. What we believe instills our medical practices. In other words, capitalism has become so heavily engrained in our culture that is has effected the way we constructed health. Many other cultures have used the process of holistic healing, which involved a body, mind, spirit approach. Essentially, instead of meeting the needs of the system, holistic healing meets the needs of the individual.

All in all, I have learned that America’s construction of health and its healthcare system needs to be challenged and reexamined. Around the globe, there are healthcare practices that are successful without detrimental side effects or bankruptcy. This class has given me the opportunity to a whole new perspective. I did not think I would be so interested in learning about other culture’s healthcare systems and practices, but now I am. Individualism and capitalism seem to be a downfall for many issues even outside healthcare. Once America recognizes the good other cultures have to offer, is when our healthcare system will become better and more effective.