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Alexzandra Baird

Reflective Writing #3
As we are coming to an end to this topic. It has come to my interests that my
understanding of health and education has become more broad and in depth
than what I would have thought at the beginning. Looking back through my
portfolio of information I have collected over the past 13 weeks, I have decided
that my changing understanding of health education has improved for the best.
It has come to my attention that I was not quite aware of health care and what
the purpose of it was. I thought health care was just someone who paid for
your care unless otherwise or about helping keep humans healthy. However, in
this case it is not. Healthcare is about finding the worse thing possible in order
to gain more money. Finding the worst case of illness means generating more
money in either to cure it or to further fund more research. For the Australian
health care system, there are two systems that it follows; the federal structure
and a public or private division. Germov states that the Federal Structure
involves New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, Tasmania and
Western Australia in which they had to agree on an establishment of the
Commonwealth of Australia. (2014) What this means is that the Australian
health care system has to follow this Commonwealth which involves the use of
shared responsibilities around Australia.
The private/public division sector is involved with health insurance, third party
vehicle insurance, etc. Written in Germovs book Second Opinion, he writes that
private health insurance companies funded two-thirds of the total spending on
private hospitals. This is estimated to be about $6.6 billion that was spent. This
is a huge comparison as the public sector has spent more on building public
hospitals for those who are unable to afford private health care.
Beginning July, all Australian citizens will have to pay for their doctor visits as
the new law that is ruling in. Every patient that is in need of a blood test, MRI,
CT scan, ultrasound or X-ray will have to pay a fee after the procedure. These
fees can be from $20 to about $400. The government has decided to take this
approach as they think it will help increase more funding that can be put
towards the healthcare system. However, I think that excuse is a load of
nothing. After watching a documentary called Sicko who was directed by
Michael Moore. I came to the realisation that the Australian health care system
is trying to move towards the American health care system.
The documentary looked into the differences between countries and their
health care systems and tried to come a conclusion on what is the best. Moore
interviewed a man who lived in the US who explained how he had an incident
where he sliced two of his fingers and that because he wasnt covered by
health insurance he had to make the decision of which finger to save. One
finger cost $12,000 while the other costed $60,000. (2007) After hearing how
much it was going to cost; I couldnt believe it. This made me think why the
Australian government would want to work towards that? Do they not know
how many people/families it is going to affect? Maybe the government doesnt
care that much about us and is only interested in the money that could come of
it.
Moore went to Canada and interviewed some residents about their health care
system that is over there. It is a complete different story. They dont get
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medical bills; it doesnt cost a house loan just to reattach a limb. I found this
surprising, and I kind of wished we had a law like that over here. It would
benefit so many people here, it could even help decrease the huge debt that
this country is in. Moore interviewed his parents who live over in Canada as
they were taking out health insurance just to travel across the border, just
because they knew what the health system is like elsewhere. (2007) I thought
it was smart how they chose to do that just in case there were to be an
accident that required them to go to the hospital.
He also looked into the health system over in Britain and Europe and
discovered that they are just as similar as Canada. In Britain, if you are in
hospital, you dont pay for anything, no medical bills, no nothing. Moore
confirmed a statement of if you paid to get to the taxi, the hospital gives you
that exact amount back as you discharge. (2007) I came to the conclusion
that I have decided that if the Australian health care system becomes too much
like the American health system that I am going to move overseas to Britain or
France so I dont have the worry of my health and it affecting me financially.
Health promoting is a process that is still ongoing as there are still health risks
and health issues that people are still not getting the message. Now Im not
about telling someone to stop eating gross foods just because it effects their
weight. I mean I understand that everyone does what they choose to do, I
shouldnt have a say in what they decide for themselves. However, my voice
could give them some guidance or advice on what maybe is right and wrong.
There are some health promoting advertisements that dont show the
seriousness about what harm we are doing not only to our bodies but the
environment around us.
One health risk advert that has truly stunned me is one that is about texting
while driving. Texting while driving is a dangerous act that a lot of the
population still do. This causes distractions when you should be concentrating
on the road and those around you. During a lesson we viewed two different
advertisements that were about texting while driving. The first video was
purely about making the dangerous risk funny as it involved a man singing a
song in a way that didnt come across serious
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4y_JuCceBA). The other video was a lot
more confronting as it showed a real life scene of what the dangers are of
getting caught out.
Although the first video was creative, it did not come across as important as
the other one did. I think it is something that should be taken as serious as any
other risk/issue. If the government or the health system want to show a way
that demonstrates how unsafe this issue is then they should look into creating
a different way of that. There are surely more effective ways to address the
issue that would gather everyones attention. However, there are not a lot of
these health promotions about texting while driving shown on television.
Maybe they should begin to show more of these promotions and
advertisements, this idea could decrease the death toll that is in place of
people who text and drive.
At the beginning of the semester, as a whole class we were asked to draw what
health education meant to us. For myself, what I thought was health education
was drinking water, eating healthy food, getting the required hours of sleep
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each night, not taking drugs. After completing this topic, my understanding of
health education has expanded dramatically. I now can confidently say that
health education is about a whole lot of things than just the body. Health
education focuses more on the environment we live in, the producing and
distributing of products and how they are marketed for customers to encourage
them to buy. Health education looks at third world countries and the
environmental issues that they are exposed to, the fortunate working
conditions and the very little occupational health and safety there is for the
workers.
Germov states that there are public issues that relate to personal troubles that
consist of four categories, these are: historical factors, cultural factors,
structural factors and critical factors (2014). Reflecting on this, I now
understand what he meant by these. As growing up I noticed that a lot of my
choices were historical or structural as my parents knew what was best for
myself. And now that I know of that, I have decided to start making choices
that I think would benefit myself, not what others might think.
To conclude, health education is not always about what is inside your body but
what is happening on outside of the world. Health education needs to be taught
more broad and it needs to include all the main topics and issues that are
involved. Overall, I think that health education should be more promoted and
should look at other ways that could be creative in which they could use to help
decrease the spread of disease, death tolls, and other different but very serious
health issues and implications.

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Alexzandra Baird

Reference List:
Germov, J & Belcher, H. (2014). Second Opinion: An introduction to health
sociology (5th edn). South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press.
Moore, M (Producer). Moore, M (Director). (2007). Sicko. [Documentary].
United States of America: Lionsgate
Moore, M (Producer). Moore, M (Director). (2007). Sicko. [Documentary].
United States of America: Lionsgate
Moore, M (Producer). Moore, M (Director). (2007). Sicko. [Documentary].
United States of America: Lionsgate
Germov, J (2014). Second Opinion: An introduction to health sociology. (5th
edn). South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press.