So for my Public Opinion class we had to write a paper regarding our topic, which mine is of course health care, and part of the paper was developing a questionnaire and talking about who our target demographic is. For mine I said that my target population would be the college students at Illinois State, since that is where I go and it seemed like the easiest population. However, after writing the paper I started to wonder if college age students would really know much regarding health insurance. I mean most if not all college age students are on their parents insurance plan and have not had to really give much thought to it. I know that if it wasn't for my pre-existing condition I probably would not know anything about health insurance and would just cost through on my parents plan, until I graduated and then got on my own plan when I got a job.
The thing is though that health insurance is a more complicated thing then some people think. Even if your plan is to simply go without insurance until you get a job that will provide insurance, that does not always work out the way you have planned. Some people can't go a period of time without health insurance because they need medicine, or doctor visits that they could not afford otherwise, or people who were always healthy could come down with a illness/get in an accident that then causes huge medical bills. With the rising cost of medical treatment going without health insurance is not a smart option, you never know what life is going to throw your way and it is not smart to take that chance. This is just something that I think college age students may not be aware of, and especially for seniors in college who are so close to graduating it is something that needs to be looked into. Let me know what you guys think? Do you think college age students have a good understanding of the importance of health insurance? Hope everyone had a good weekend.
I think you bring up an excellent point about college aged students not knowing what they are necessarily talking about. Perhaps for your poll you can look at the entire adult population?
ReplyDeleteHowever it still might be interesting to poll colege students. I remeber reading your poll and you had good screener questions. If your sample size is big enough you can then just weed out nonattitude responses. But unfortunately in regards to your last question -- I don't think college students fully understand the importance of health insurance, especially considering they are the most uninsured group and voluntarily too.
Great post! I think you're right. College students are typically on their parent's insurance, or don't have any at all. In my case, I have always been covered by my dad's insurance. When I left high school, I went to U of Colorado where I didn't know anyone. I had to take matters into my own hands when it came to seeing a doctor, dentist, etc. At first, I admit that I was very overwhelmed and so afraid of going to a doctor that was not covered under the plan. I think this fear of costing my parents a lot of money made me force myself to get to know more about my coverage.
ReplyDeleteIn a way, I believe that I became more independent as a person with that experience. I would like to think that all the students who receive health insurance through ISU do a lot of research on the ins and outs of their coverage. But, it's highly unlikely that they probably do, until an issue arises.