Sick Around the World VideoUS health care system ranks 37 in the worldTrying to find out how rich countries don’t spend a lot of money of health care but are successful in keeping it goingGreat BritainGovernment run national health serviceNHS covers everyone and has better health statisticsNo fee at all and the system covers everyoneGovernment owns the hospitalsDoctors are salary government employeesNo medical bankruptcyBrits pay much higher taxes to cover healthcareFalls in elective care like hip replacements and heart operations because it takes so long for people to get those surgeries because of waiting listsNHS staffers are angry about new trends and government plans to privatize NHS servicesPay no doctor billsTokyoBetter national health and spend less and everyone is coveredLongest healthy life expectancy and the lowest infant mortality rateDon’t pay for all of it through taxes but sign up for health insurance policy, social insurance80% of the hospitals are private and every doctors office is a private businessGo to the doctor 3 times are often as AmericansJapanese found ways to make doctor machines like MRI’s cheaper for them to treat their patientsIts 90$ to sleep in a hospital for the night and 10$ if you share the room with 4 peopleIf you lose your job you don’t lose your health insurance unlike in US you have to switch to a public serviceNo waiting lists50% of hospitals are in financial deficitJapanese spend too little on medicine, prices aren’t high enough to balance the booksThey have to increase prices to save the hospitals from going brokePeople don’t go broke from hospital billsGermanyConcept of health care system was invented hereBismarck model offers everyone in Germany healthcareRich can opt out and get covered privatelyGermans pay premiums based on income to insurersSocial support system where the rich cover the poor and the healthy cover the sickYou pay a premium of 15$ every time you go to the doctorInsurance plans compete amongst themselves for customers but they cant make a profitDoctors aren’t the rich image that we give them in the USTaiwanHalf the population had no coverage at allExamining the major systemsNational insurance system that forced everyone to payOne government insurer collecting the money with no chance to opt outNo waiting timeYou have a smartcard with all your medical information and payment gets sent to the government and paid automaticallyIf you go to the doctor too many times then you get a chat with the governmentSwitzerlandUniversal coverageEveryone buys insurance with the state paying for the poorKilling Us SoftlyEroticizing violenceLabeling traits as masculine and feminineShowing women to be obsessed with thinnessViolence against womenPublic health problemsObjectifying women in adsAds have gotten worseModels are dying because of anorexiaChildren are being objectifyingWomen are supposed to be viewed as innocent and childishHard to balance relationship between being pure and virgin while being sexyProfitable for ads when we feel terrible about ourselvesWomen are turning into the objectAds affect us subconsciouslyWe think of ourselves as primarily consumers and not citizensMen can be objectified in ads tooDoctors define healthyAbsence of diseaseThere are many culture and material influences on health there are so many factorsMedicine in the USDavid Karp—illness and diseaseModern medicine is an illness as physical phenomenonSymbolic interactionism shows difference between illness and diseaseIllnessSocially constructedSubjective experienceRelated to the significance of cultural meaning in terms of how the symptoms are experienced/dealt withExamples? Pinto (David Karp’s article with the skin disease in South Africa)Experience of bodily symptoms shaped by social and cultural processesCorrespond to different symbolic meaning in different culturesExperience of pain? Why do people react differently to pain?Socially constructedMark Zborowski article looked at three different groups in the US and how they experience pain (Jews, Anglo-Saxon people, and Italians)Jews were philosophical about itAnglo-saxons barely complained about painItalians were very emotional about painDavid Karp article: DepressionDepression is a biological disorder requiring professional treatmentSocial/cultural processRate of depression increases:Those who were born after WW2Rise among women: gender roles, family structure, divorce, and powerlessnessRise among the baby boomersEmotional reactions to situationsCauses disconnection and lack of social integration, work, love and relationships, unemployment, poverty, physical illness, child abuse, chemical imbalancesJack Najman—Health/IncomeOn average the mortality rate among the lowest was 1.5 times higher than the richer section of societyH-20% Income EarnerL-20% Income EarnerOn average infant mortality among African American was 5 times higher than whitesLife expectancy white people live 6-7 more years than African AmericansWhat kind of policies should be implemented to reduce the gap between the poor and rich in terms of health and income?Like what we saw in the video where we don’t have to make appointments for doctors and we don’t have to pay for doctorIf you can increase the income of the poor other factors become a lot easierTable 7.1 Life Spain, Health, and WealthUnited states is almost toward the end in life expectancy, total expenditure on health, and expenditure of healthUS is spending a lot of money to get good health but has a low life expectancyWhy is the cost so high but the result is not as great?Health care system focuses less on social issues whereas other places take measures to give everyone equal health careIt has become survival of the fittest where only the richest get to enjoy all the privileges of health care where the poorest can always go to do the hospital because it is so expensiveRegenerative diseases are getting higherWe spend $6500 on health careMRI, organ transplant, etc. are all extremely expensiveDoctors in our country are the most expensive compared to other countriesSociology of BodyMedicalization of society—process of legitimating medical control over an area of lifeDoctor’s control is increasing in modern societyOur body is constantly something we have to create instead of something we accept such as diet, plastic surgery, etc.Foucault—social technology with a means to alter/shape the bodyReproductionSocialization of natureMen and women are able to decide