Critical and Cultural Studies Commons^™

Consumer Subjectivity And Us Healthcare Reform, Emily West

Emily E. West

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 …