Being a Good Consumer


Being a good consumer means being responsible for
own health. This means actions that we take in our
every day lives. For example, grocery shopping,
every day shopping, information evaluations, choosing
your doctors, website information, and more. How can we
become more responsible with our designs in this area?
Easy! Make good choices that are beneficial to you!


Characteristics of Good Consumers

* They are skeptical and demand evidence of claims
* They are socially aware
*They are environmentally aware
*They shop for economy
*They seek reliable sources of information
*They are patient
*They communicate effectively
*They select health care practitioner carefully and use
practitioners wisely
*They practice good health habits, taking a practice
role in their health
*They take an active role in the management of their health
problems
*They read and understand contracts
*They report unethical or fraudulent practices

(Pages 5 and 6 Consumer Health Textbook)


How can we become a better consumer when shopping?
Many people go shopping for entertainment and for social
interactions. Usually when you shop, you see something you
like and buy it. Ways to prevent this is to keep your wallet at
home and just window shop with your friends. That way you
have no way of buying it at that moment.







Bringing children while grocery shopping is a big NO NO!

Grocery shopping is always a big money spender. Often people
are not sure how to save money and don't know where the
cheapest food is. A good way to eliminate the amount of money
you spend on groceries is making a list and sticking to it. Also
going to a grocery store hungry doesn't help either. There are
cheaper places to get fruits and vegetables other than going to
Wegmans. Make a change and go to a Farmers Market, they are
much cheaper.


Evaluating Information
"Intelligent consumers search out information
generated by legitimate medical and scientific studies,
rather than well-known people who are given a podium because
of their fame or a publishing contract because their celebrity attracts
sales. Conscientious consumers carefully search for information
about health- related services and products ( p7.)"




Web as an Information Source

Ways to be a good consumer for looking information
up on websites are....
* Check out sponsor sites
*Be skeptical
*Determine the sites objectives
*Find out if the information is current
*Check out the domain suffix
*Look for original source of material
*Look for the web sites linking policy
*Familiarize yourself with the sites personal information


Choosing a Primary Care physician
Choosing a doctor is very important. There are so many, but
you want to be sure that you have a doctor that is well knowledge
and reliable. Sometimes it is not always easy to find a person on your
own, but asking others for advice can help! There are important
things to find out about your doctor's office when making a decsion.
Some good questions to ask is...
Is the doctor in my insurance plan?
When the doctor is away who will take his patients?
Will he take care of my children as well?




The American Health Care Systems

.In the United States we have so many health departments
that specialize certain parts of the body! There are also
different types of hospitals. For example Community
hospitals, Emergency rooms, Urgent care, Children
hospitals, and more.



Quality of Care in America
"Many Americans believe that they live in a nation that deivers the
best, most comprehensive health care in the entire world. They would
be mistaken. While it may be true that the United States has some of the best
equipped hospitals and the best trained physicians in the world, the system
falls short of what is attainable ( The commonwealth Fund, 2008)." (p22)
In today's world, life expectancy has increased greatly. This is because
of the health and medicine inventions we have today.  The World Health
organization evaluated the health care and delivered it to 191 nations. They had
goals that the health system should do.
*Good Health "Making the health status of the entire population as good as possible"
*Responsiveness "Responding to peoples expectations of respectful treatment and client
orientation by health care providers"
*Fairness in financing : Ensuring financial protection for everyone.



The U.S has the most expensive health care system in the world.


March 2010, President Barack Obama signed into law the Health Care and Education Reconciliation
Act of 2010. This was to help reduce the number of people who were uninsured by health care. They're goal was to make employee coverage more affordable. Also those that are uninsured he was trying to make it more affordable.

Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO's)- These are for- profit organization. They are free based on their coverage.

 

 

Reflection

 

I think I did really well with the discussions. For each of the discussions I looked up information online to share it with other people so they would learn something. I really like that you comment on the discussion questions. This way I know what I have to work on and what I did well on. Discussing the chapters with other people really helps me learn information better. Also it allows you to reflect and think about the topic. My favorite part about this online class is the learning journal because I can be creative while reflecting on what I learned in the chapters.

 

 

Indemnity Insurance: A type of health insurance that requires the subscriber to pay certain charges, such as copayments and deductibles, and which allows the insured to choose his or her own health care provider.

 Placebo: substance used in medical treatment that has no pharmaceutical effect on the problem it is being used to treat.

Rheumatology: diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the joints, including arthritis and autoimmune diseases.