POLLS

I was going more frequently, but since I'm young and healthy, I got the impression my doctor was questioning why I was showing up each year - so I've stopped going as often.

While I understand that young people paying for insurance is required to help offset the costs of the older populations, I definitely don't feel that I'm getting my money's worth when I go to the doctor. I'm asked how I'm doing, I say fine, I get my blood pressure taken, and they send me home.

For the amount of money I'm paying monthly for insurance it would make a lot of sense for me to get catastrophic coverage and drop my current coverage for doctor's visits. I think this needs to be addressed in some way or other.

but isn't a call to proactivity, preventive medicine and personal responsibility at the heart of real reform's success? and how do you achieve that without your doctor?

Craig - you are right. Perhaps if there was an alternative way to be seen, instead of the the typical short-visit to a doctor, young people would be more inclined to buy-in to insurance, etc.

For instance, we educate elementary students differently than middle and high school students. Why? Because they are at completely different places in their base of knowledge, as well as their cognitive learning abilities.

20-somethings fundamentally understand their health differently than those in their 50s and 60s. Working out, I think, is viewed with more vanity to younger generations, and eating healthy is a way to help the working out part. To an older person, preventing a heart-attack might be the reason for working out and eating healthy. That's not even in the thought process of many young people deciding how to take care of their bodies.

I think health care should take into consideration the differences in how people understand their own health, and create a system that fits that mold.

Lastly, I would benefit from an annual 2 hour meal-planning session with a dietician much more than I benefit from seeing my doctor once a year. If insurance took age into account, and gave options like this, I would be more happy with the entire system.