Health and Healing in America

Here is the rundown of modified deadlines and dates for the remainder of the semester, the all-online portion of the class.

Friday, April 26: Response #4 is due by 11:59 pm. The journals close (i.e. will be unavailable) after that. The prompt for Response #4 is in the back of the syllabus.

Monday, April 29: Post your Health Ad video project to Blackboard Discussion Board (Course Dialogue) in a post by 11:59 pm.

Monday, April 29: Honors students, finish your work on the Glossary by 11:59 pm.

Tuesday, April 30, Midnight: Glossary (Google doc) opens up for the entire class to view and study from.

Wednesday, May 1: Vote for your three top video choices by 11:59 pm. Use the link on Blackboard Unit 3 to a Google form. I will then list the 16 vote-getters in an elimination bracket which will be run on Blackboard between May 3 and May 7.

Friday, May 3: Vote for your favorites in each of the 8 contests (16 –> 8)
Submit your Policy Ad reflection paper to Blackboard Unit 3 by 11:59 pm.

Over the weekend May 4-5: Vote for your top favorites in each of the 4 semi-final contests (8 –> 4).

Monday, May 6: Vote for your favorites in the final round (4 –> 2) Submit your two exam questions on Blackboard Unit 3, using a Google Form, by 2:00 pm.

Tuesday, May 7: Vote for your #1 champion ad. Honors students finalize their version of the exam.

Thursday, May 9: Final exam (take-home online final) is released on Blackboard. You have 48 hours to take it, due Friday May 10 at 11:59 pm. “Force completion” will be turned off, so you can work on it until you’re ready to submit.

Thanks, everyone, for your hard work and making this class a successful learning experience for yourselves, each other, and for me! Have a great summer. And stay healthy 🙂

Our campus has the honor of hosting Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey for a town hall meeting in the May Street Auditorium, and it’s happening right at our class time on April 17. Perfect! Bonus points to anyone who asks him a question about health care policy. You might enjoy getting up to speed on what he thinks about it before his talk.

So … instead of class, let’s all meet there. I will have a clipboard with attendance, so look for me there, and enjoy the rare opportunity to hear one of your senators in person.

The event will start at 12:30 p.m., and be concluded by 2:00 p.m., in the May Street auditorium.

Best ~ Dr. Hangen

For Unit 3, we make a giant leap in time forward to the present, to consider the ongoing, currently-unfolding political drama about health care policy (and yes, I promise you: it is a drama).

Wed, April 3: Health Care Policy before 2008. Begin by reading the Stevens article in the course reader, “History and Health Care Policy in the United States: The Making of a Health Care Industry, 1948-2008.” I STRONGLY recommend that you make a timeline in your own notes, to sort out the chronology and the important legislative milestones. Also, please read Christy Ford Chapin’s article for The Conversation, “Why Insurance Companies Control Your Medical Care” (online link). You can ignore the Burnham chapters as listed in the syllabus, we won’t be using those after all.

Mon, April 8: Field Guide to the Policy Landscape. Reading: Reagan’s 1961 “Operation Coffeecup” transcript, in the course reader. This was distributed by the American Medical Association as a vinyl record for people to listen to in home meetings (like Tupperware parties, but for fearmongering anti-Communist health care policy. Ah, the ’60s), so if you want to listen to Reagan’s velvet voice delivering it, you can find it on YouTube and follow along.

Links to explore on Monday during class –
Wikipedia –> Healthcare Reform in the United States
US History in Context –> Health Care Reform
BallotPedia –> History of Health Care Policy in the United States
American Medical Association –> Vision for Health Care Reform
Kaiser Family Foundations –> History of Health Reform in the US
New York Times –> Health Care Reform topic search
JAMA –> US Health Care Reform Progress to Date and Next Steps (B. Obama, 2016)
Pew Research –> Health Care
ProCon.org –> Obamacare or Right to Health Care
Commonwealth Fund –> Health Care System Performance Rankings

Wed, April 10: Film Day: Sicko (2007). No reading; Disease Project Paper due by classtime. Upload to Blackboard under “Assignments” portal.