UAB offers a program on campus called “Free Food 4 Thought.” The purpose of this program is to give students and faculty within the community a chance to talk about a variety of topics, many dealing with lifestyles and cultures. In exchange for your opinion, you receive a free, and might I say, tasty, lunch.
The particular session that I attended was entitled “Are you willing to pay for Someone Else’s Health Insurance?” When I heard the topic of discussion, I must admit that I was expecting an hour of constant argument from people. Due to the healthcare reform issues currently being undertaken in Washington, and the subsequent gridlock resulting from disagreement on what to do to solve the problem, I assumed that the session would be much like the example we are shown from our political leaders; lots of talking around the dilemma without actually accomplishing anything.
We began the hour by participating in an interactive survey that polled the audience on a variety of questions dealing with healthcare in America. I was very surprised to find that when asked if access to quality healthcare at an affordable rate should depend on the number of hours a person works, the majority of those attending selected no. I think that this shows how the media can skew our perception of reality.
A film, “A Pound of Debt” was shown, which highlighted the struggles of local people from Birmingham who are struggling to make it on their meager wages, and due to either the nature of work they do or the hours they work, do not receive any type of benefits such as medical coverage. I had never considered how artists and others working independently could face a problem such as this. Also, in the hard economic times, many employers are not offering full-time positions, which leaves the unemployed in a situation where they must take the available job but it results in their being a gap in coverage.
To me, I feel that this situation within American society (or any other in that matter) can be described as an example of applied anthropology, where the study focuses on a problem based approach, and attempts to solve a questions to better society. In order for this to be most effective, one must investigate a culture’s multiple systems and understand how they are interrelated. For this reason, it is very hard to find a quick fix to such a complicated issue. I think that if our politicians were to take an Anthropology class, maybe they could understand the problem more clearly and be able to determine a more appropriate action plan.
