Bianca Little teaches a course called “peace and social change” for high school seniors. As a teacher, she said it is important that her pupils receive well-rounded civics education in order to “help them become critical thinkers, especially in [the] climate that we have right now, politically and socially, where there’s so much misinformation.”
She added that a civics education is undeniably tied to health care as it involves “understanding how to take care of yourself. If you’re gonna take care of your community, you have to have that foundation within yourself first.”
Many of her students have a strong understanding of the connection between health care and civics as they have experiences with family members who are sick or living with a disability and have encountered difficulties with accessibility services.
“All of these things are connected because I think civics teaches you when you see something wrong, how do you start to fix it? I think we live in a society that isn’t fully aware and cognizant of people who are disabled or people who aren’t able bodied. So the two are married,” Little said.
Sarah Weill-Jones, a disability justice advocate from Philadelphia, is currently on their mother’s insurance but is becoming increasingly worried about what they will do once they turn 26.
“Who knows what job I’ll have? Who knows what schooling I’ll be in during that time, and if I’ll have a job that gives me the benefits that I’ll need to access the same level of health care that I’m receiving now?” they said.
For them, health care is a priority when deciding how to vote.
“If your representative is not actively advocating for you to receive quality health care and providers that are invested in your well-being, then it’s not someone that you should be voting for,” they said.
Weill-Jones said that Vot-ER’s initiative to increase voter and civic education by integrating it with health care is “absolutely a no brainer.” However, they also believe that these civic projects should expand beyond doctors offices as many voters may not have the coverage required to see a provider.
In terms of public policy, Rumbos-Perez said that “Medicare for All” has been a “rallying cry for a lot of young people”. The proposed bill would establish a universal single-payer national health insurance system.
Many young people become deeply aware of the link between health care and civics “the second that you yourself are dealing with the bureaucracy of either private medical insurance or public health care,” Rumbos-Perez said.
“I hold on to the hope that in my lifetime we will pass something like ‘Medicare for All’ in the U.S., but that takes people to be civically engaged and to use whatever political voice they have to make that happen,” he said.
Editor’s Note: This story is part of a series on Youth Civic Engagement funded by the William Penn Foundation. WHYY News produces independent, fact-based news content for audiences in Greater Philadelphia, Delaware and South Jersey.