Dolores Huerta Labor Institute

Lesson Title: The Health Care Crisis in the US

Course: Political Science 1, 2; Sociology 2; Labor Studies 4, 104, 107

Expected Learning Objectives: Students will be able to:

1. Compare and contrast different modern industrialized countries’ approaches to health care coverage

2. Review current state of health care for the uninsured in the US

3. Assess the different proposals to reform health care in the US

4. Evaluate the arguments supporting and opposing a stronger role for federal government within the context of the health care reform debate

Key Concepts: Health care reform, the uninsured, socialized medicine vs. single-payer vs. corporate insurance healthcare, federalism or the role of US federal government

Materials: “State of Los Angeles Health Care,” “State of California Health Care,” ““The United States: An Expensive Health Care System,” “US Health Care Costs Increasing,” “US Health Care: Costly and Lower Quality,” “Summary of Major Health Care Systems,” “’Summary of Major Health Care Systems’ worksheet,” and “US President Obama’s Speech on Health Care Reform (September 9, 2009)”

This lesson covers an issue that currently arouses a great deal of passion in the general public–health care reform. The issue has evoked fierce debate about the role of the US federal government. Whereas US President Ronald Reagan said that “government is the problem,” US President Barack Obama in his 2009 Inaugural speech observed that “the question we ask today it not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works—whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified.”