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Article
Consumer Subjectivity and US Healthcare Reform
Health Communication (2013)
  • Emily West, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Abstract

Health care consumerism is an important frame in US health care policy, especially in recent media and policy discourse about federal health care reform. This paper reports on qualitative fieldwork with health care users to find out how people interpret and make sense of the identity of “health care consumer.” It proposes that while the term consumer is normally understood as a descriptive label for users who purchase health care and insurance services, it should actually be understood as a metaphor, carrying with it a host of associations that shape US health care policy debates in particular ways. Based on interviews with thirty-six people, patient was the dominant term people used to describe themselves, but consumer was the second most popular. Informants interpreted the health care consumer as being informed, proactive, and having choices, but there were also “semiotic traps,” or difficult-to-resolve tensions for this identity. The discourse of consumerism functions in part as code for individual responsibility, and therefore as a classed moral discourse, with implications for US health care policy.

Keywords
  • Healthcare Reform,
  • Framing,
  • Interviews,
  • Subjectivity,
  • Consumers,
  • Choice
Publication Date
April 30, 2013
Publisher Statement
The document at right contains the survey and interview questions used in this study.
Citation Information
Emily West. "Consumer Subjectivity and US Healthcare Reform" Health Communication (2013)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/emily_west/20/