With health care at the forefront of hot-button issues for Americans, many baby boomers and even young families are concerned with the future of what is routinely regarded as the most important issue in Washington.Young Americans like Amsterdam High School alumna Leah Pepe are exploring those concerns through a Union College Program aiming to explore and research health care systems around the world.

 

Pepe recently spent nine weeks studying health care as part of Union's National Health System Program and eight weeks doing an internship at Hometown Health Center in Schenectady, including the Joan Nicole Prince Home, Albany Medical Center's Intensive Care Unit and Capital District Psychiatric Center. She then traveled with 10 other Union College students to Canada, participating in a weeklong class studying alongside a pharmacist, a geriatrician at a nursing home, a midwife at a midwifery clinic, among other facilities and health care professionals. The research then took Pepe to Denmark, making her the first in her family to travel to Europe.

 

“I am so thankful to have experienced this particular term abroad considering what is going on all around us in the United States with new health care proposals and legislation,” said Pepe.

 

“A lot of people claim they know all the issues and solutions to, what some consider a flawed health care system. One of the best ways to help us understand our strengths and weaknesses is through comparative analysis, using other countries,” said Pepe.

 

Pepe said she learned the health care system in the U.S. is one of the hardest to access, with 14 percent

of the population uninsured. She said countries have a health care funding system that resembles a food pyramid with care on top, secondary care, and primary care consuming the bottom.

 

“We can all agree that the United States has the best care anywhere in the world,” she said. “For rare diseases and very complicated surgeries we are the best. But those rare illnesses, on a population-wide basis, are not what are taking lives.”

 

According to Pepe, manageable chronic illnesses such as diabetes that go unchecked because of lack of primary care funds and accessibility are the most likely of killers. The chronic illnesses affect most of the population, but are often put on the back burner, she said. Before the trip, Pepe was unsure if she wanted to pursue a career in health care but said that quickly changed. She said the trip was life-changing in that she realizes how desperately the U.S. needs a system that works for every human being. In addition to being a senior at Union and a starting basketball player for the college, she is in the process of a volunteer application with the Joan Nicole Prince Home and plans to participate in Camp Erin, a hospice program.

 

“After studying health care for four months, I have concluded that there is no perfect system,” said Pepe. “Also, I do not believe any of these exact systems would necessarily work in the United States. ... Our country is geographically much larger, and much more populated.”

 

Pepe didn't say the solution would be simple, however.

 

“We should really examine what works in other countries and take bits and pieces of each to composite what would work best for us,” she said.

This article was written by Jennifer Farnsworth, appearing in the Auguest 16, 2010 edition of the Amsterdam Recorder and is used per permission.