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Free Lesson Plans for Teachers
Alpha Stage
States Lead the Way
November 28, 2006






The price of health care and insurance has been a major issue in the
United States for many years. Congress has never been able to find
a way to make sure that every citizen of the U.S. has access to high
quality health care and health care coverage.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is running a story entitled, "Health
Reform Looks to the States." The article explains that lawmakers
such as Representative Tammy Baldwin and Tom Price are from
opposite sides of the political spectrum, who have rarely agreed on
complicated issues. But now, "They are part of a group of
lawmakers and policy analysts…that would use states as
laboratories to test different approaches for expanding insurance
coverage, improving quality and controlling costs."

Read the article!!


Discussion-Starters for Younger Children:

  • Ask your students what somebody should do when he/she is
    sick. Why?

  • Ask your students how they think that doctors make a living,
    or the money to pay for things that they want and need.

  • Ask what should happen if somebody is sick and does not
    have enough money to pay for a doctor or enough money to
    pay for medicine? You might ask your students to develop a
    skit in which they show what should happen if somebody
    does not have enough money to pay for medical care.

  • Invite your students to think of a problem that they had
    recently. What was the problem? Ask if they think that other
    people might have come up with different ways to solve the
    problem? How might they have done so? If your students
    didn't solve the problem, maybe they can think of a solution
    now. Either in groups or as a whole class on the board, you
    might help students diagram the steps of solving the problem
    that they went through. Several important steps include:
    recognizing that they have a problem; thinking about how to
    solve the problem; trying to solve the problem; and,
    tweaking the way the problem is solved to solve it correctly.

Discussion-Starters for Older Children:

  • Ask your students to define the following words: "access,"
    "health insurance," "state," and "laboratory." Most pre-teens
    and teenagers have heard of a laboratory, as it relates to
    science. But ask your students if they can think of a way in
    which a fireman or a lawyer might use a laboratory.

  • Do your students think that every citizen of the United States
    should be able to get the highest quality doctor services or
    medicine when they are sick? Why/why not? What if
    somebody cannot afford this health care? Encourage your
    students to support their opinions. You might ask students to
    develop comic strips in which they respond to these
    questions.

  • Tell your students that the United States Congress has been
    trying to figure out a way to provide access to high quality
    health care to all U.S. citizens for many years. But they have
    been unable to do so. Members of Congress disagree as to
    how they could best accomplish this goal and they want new
    ideas. Ask where the members of Congress could look for
    ideas. Encourage them to consider different possibilities.
    Students might send memos to their Congressional
    representatives explaining their ideas.

  • Ask what students think that Congress could do to achieve
    their objective of enabling every American to have access to
    the highest quality health care. Remind them that Congress
    does not have an unlimited amount of money to spend.
    Encourage them to be creative.
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