Overview | How will health care reform change life and politics in the United States? What does the new law mean for individuals, families, businesses and insurers, as well as for politics and government leaders? In this lesson, students gauge their background knowledge of the health care reform act and take a close look at the legislation to clarify their understanding. They then execute a project on historical context, local reaction and/or the key players, and finish by creating collages of images and quotations that illuminate the issues.
Materials | Copies of the quiz, computers with Internet access (optional), research materials
Warm-up | Distribute copies of the quiz How Health Care Reform Will (and Will Not) Change Your Life (PDF) to students. Give them time to complete the true-false quiz independently, encouraging them to make their best guesses when they do not know the answer.
Or, have students take the quiz “open book” style, using the interactive graphics Proposed Changes in the Health Care Bill and How the Health Care Overhaul Could Affect You, citing sources for each answer.
After the quiz, reveal that statements 1, 5, 7, 8 and 10 are true, and 2, 3, 4, 6 and 9 are false. Review each statement, asking how many had the right answer, whether that answer surprised them; in addition, clarify and explain why the statement is, indeed, true or false, referring to the two interactive graphics and the article “For Consumers, Clarity on Health Care Changes.”
You might also invite students to identify other bits of information they have heard about what the health care reform will mean to American citizens and businesses. (For the sake of clarity, stick to facts for now rather than delving into ideological statements or discussions of whether students support or oppose the law.)
Use the article and the graphic, along with other sources, such as “Readers’ Questions on the Health Care Overhaul,” and other posts on the Prescriptions blog to work together to achieve clarity and verify which statements are true, which are misconceptions, and which are a matter of interpretation.
Related |In “Big Win for Obama, but at What Cost?” David E. Sanger says this about the House’s passage of health care legislation late Sunday night:
The more the country debated this change to the social contract, the more divided it became. The more Mr. Obama talked, the more his Republican opponents decided that their best strategy was to dig in and defend the status quo. If deficits soar, if the Congressional Budget Office’s estimates prove fanciful, they will be able to argue that Mr. Obama expanded government at a time the country simply could not afford yet another entitlement.
Read the entire article with your students, using the following questions.
Questions | For discussion and reading comprehension:
- How does Mr. Sanger characterize House Republicans’ actions regarding health care reform?
- What is the “promise” Mr. Sanger says President Obama has lost as a result of the health care debate?
- How might this experience affect Obama’s strategy in other areas of his presidency?
- How does the article compare health care reform to the passage of Medicare in 1965 and President Obama to President Lyndon B. Johnson?
- What does Peter Wehner believe will happen to public opinion about health care reform as time passes? Why?
From The Learning Network
- Lesson: Dysfunction Function: Charting the Ideal and Real Legislative Process
- Lesson: Where Do You Stand? Responding to the Pending Health Care Legislation
- Student Opinion: Do You Support or Oppose the Health Care Reform Bill?
- Times Topics: Health Care Reform
- Prescriptions: Making Sense of the Health Care Debate
- Interactive Timeline: A History of Overhauling Health Care
Around the Web
Activity | Have students work alone or in small groups to complete one or more of the following activities, as appropriate for your course and curriculum.
Guiding topics and questions:
Public opinion – Did the public support the initiative from the start? How, if at all, did public opinion change during the legislative process? immediately after the law was enacted? over the course of the next year, five years, 10 years, and so on?
The president – Who was president at the time when this bill passed? Why did he champion this legislation? What was his strategy? How did he work with members of his own party on the legislation? with members of the other party or parties? How did the legislation shape his presidency and legacy?
Congress – Who in the House and Senate were instrumental in the passage of the bill? Who were its chief opponents? What were the arguments for and against? In the end, how close was the vote? How did members of Congress and senators from each party vote? How does this compare with how members of the House and Senate voted on health care reform?
Issues and context – In what ways are the core issues in health care reform similar to those of the other initiative from history? In what ways are the issues different? How do the rhetoric and arguments around both initiatives compare and contrast? What was going on in the country at the time, and how does it compare to today?
After research is complete, students write essays and/or give presentations. They then use the lessons of history to make predictions for how health care reform may affect life and politics in the United States, and how it will be viewed years from now.
Who’s Who and What’s Next
Students watch the video The Continuing Battle Over Health Care and read the article “Republicans Vow Repeal Effort Against Health Bill” to identify key players in health care reform opposition, such as Senators Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Scott Brown (R-Mass.), House minority leader John Boehner, Florida attorney general Bill McCollum and the Tea Party movement.
They should also research figures who were instrumental in moving health care reform forward and getting it passed, such as speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senate majority leader Harry Reid, as well as other influential lawmakers, such as Senator Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.).
After researching the key players, students track their actions (and their opponents’ counter-actions) for the rest of the school year by creating and maintaining a physical or digital bulletin board, on which they introduce these individuals and groups with an overview of who they are, what they want and why, and what they are doing to accomplish their goals, along with any successes and setbacks.
Alternatively or additionally, students take on the roles of key proponents and opponents of health care reform and hold a debate, round-table discussion or forum, participating in character.
Local Response and Reaction
Students read selected readers’ comments (and possibly post their own) in the interactive feature Health Care Conversations. Assign or allow them to choose one or more of the 26 topics to delve into, working individually or in pairs.
Next, they do some background research to contextualize the issue(s) they read about. They then interview several people they know, using some of the readers’ comments as conversation starters, and drawing on their research.
Finally, they write articles on the particular issue they investigated, quoting their interview subjects, for the school newspaper or for a stand-alone publication they might circulate in the school community. (Alternatively, they create videos or podcasts that include video or audio clips from their interviews.)
Host a presentation event in which all students/groups share their articles, videos or podcasts. Consider compiling all of their work into a print or online anthology, or group video or audio feature, called “Our Health Care Conversations.”
During the event, start a class timeline that you will leave in place for the rest of the school year. Begin your timeline by gleaning important dates from the interactive feature A History of Overhauling Health Care. Have students contribute to it as new developments emerge, perhaps returning to their interviewees for their reactions and posting quotes on the timeline.
Going Further | Individually, students make collages that express the views of individuals and groups that are “left,” “right” and “center” regarding health care reform, by literally placing the photographs, headlines, blurbs, etc. in the same locations on their poster board. For example, they might use this image of Representative Patrick J. Kennedy embracing Ron Pollack of Families USA after the measure passed, or the one of Nancy Pelosi holding an oversized gavel as she and other Representatives walk to the Capitol on the left side of the paper. On the right, they might include House Republicans holding signs reading “Kill the Bill” or headlines vowing a repeal. At center, they can include photos and quotes from people who are neither emphatically for or against the measure but who are waiting to see what happens. These might include people they know and/or have interviewed for the local reactions activity.
When the collages are complete, students post them all around the room, and then discuss what they notice, what the juxtapositions of images and words highlight and illuminate for them, along with lingering questions they have.
Standards | From McREL, for grades 6-12:
1. Understands ideas about civic life, politics, and government
3. Understands the sources, purposes, and functions of law, and the importance of the rule of law for the protection of individual rights and the common good
8. Understands the central ideas of American constitutional government and how this form of government has shaped the character of American society
9. Understands the importance of Americans sharing and supporting certain values, beliefs, and principles of American constitutional democracy
10. Understands the roles of voluntarism and organized groups in American social and political life
11. Understands the role of diversity in American life and the importance of shared values, political beliefs, and civic beliefs in an increasingly diverse American society
12. Understands the relationships among liberalism, republicanism, and American constitutional democracy
13. Understands the character of American political and social conflict and factors that tend to prevent or lower its intensity
14. Understands issues concerning the disparities between ideals and reality in American political and social life
15. Understands how the United States Constitution grants and distributes power and responsibilities to national and state government and how it seeks to prevent the abuse of power
16. Understands the major responsibilities of the national government for domestic and foreign policy, and understands how government is financed through taxation
17. Understands issues concerning the relationship between state and local governments and the national government and issues pertaining to representation at all three levels of government
18. Understands the role and importance of law in the American constitutional system and issues regarding the judicial protection of individual rights
19. Understands what is meant by “the public agenda,” how it is set, and how it is influenced by public opinion and the media
20. Understands the roles of political parties, campaigns, elections, and associations and groups in American politics
21. Understands the formation and implementation of public policy
United States History
24. Understands how the New Deal addressed the Great Depression, transformed American federalism, and initiated the welfare state
28. Understands domestic policies in the post-World War II period
31. Understands economic, social, and cultural developments in the contemporary United States
1. Understands and knows how to analyze chronological relationships and patterns
2. Understands the historical perspective
1. Uses the general skills and strategies of the writing process
2. Uses the stylistic and rhetorical aspects of writing
3. Uses grammatical and mechanical conventions in written compositions
4. Gathers and uses information for research purposes
5. Uses the general skills and strategies of the reading process
7. Uses reading skills and strategies to interpret a variety of informational texts
8. Uses listening and speaking strategies for different purposes
9. Uses viewing skills and strategies to understand and interpret visual media
1. Knows the availability and effective use of health services, products, and information
1. Knows and uses health care terminology
2. Understands the history and trends of health care, both past and present
3. Understands the distinctions among the various levels of care
5. Understands the components of the health care delivery system
7. Understands the relationship between the health care delivery system and the community
4. Understands conflict, cooperation, and interdependence among individuals, groups, and institutions