From TikTok to the Doctor’s Office: Guiding Gen Z Through the Health Care Maze
Teaching young adults how to schedule appointments, navigate insurance and advocate for themselves is crucial for success
While headlines about health care policy abound, they are often focused on the big issues: affordability, abortion rights, exorbitant drug costs and Medicare funding. However, they rarely touch on how little the average patient knows about navigating the convoluted U.S. health care system. As the parent of both an 18-year-old and a 20-year-old whose "adulting" will involve entering that system, this terrifies me.
Despite being both a physician and a very experienced patient — as a two-time cancer survivor, I've spent more than 100 nights in a hospital bed — even I am regularly challenged with the basics of managing my own health care. With all of my experience on both sides of the bed, If I am struggling to manage my health care — scheduling timely appointments, communicating with my doctors' offices, comparing drug costs, managing insurance claims and more — then how are my young adult kids going to learn to navigate this system?
Reluctant Patients
It's time that parents of young adults equip our children with more than the ability to Google their symptoms, convincing themselves that they have a rare tropical disease. We need to teach them not just about how the health care system works, but how to navigate it and how to advocate for themselves. The trouble is, they don't seem to have much interest in the idea. I can attest to that: as a former pediatrician who specialized in adolescent health, I had thousands of conversations over the years with my patients about how to transition into their adult stage of health care and they were generally disinterested.
They tell me that while they are definitely confused by most of the health care system, especially insurance, they also don't feel like they need any health care unless they're sick.
This reluctance correlates with their usage of the health care system: 18-25 year olds voluntarily seek medical care less than any other age group, even as they are one of the most frequent users of the emergency room for care. The young adults that I've interviewed over the last few years for my health care podcast operate on a need-to-know basis. They tell me that while they are definitely confused by most of the health care system, especially insurance, they also don't feel like they need any health care unless they're sick. Meanwhile, the health tips they're getting from Instagram and TikTok are providing them with the sense that they are getting all of the information they need (they're not). When they actually do need care, they're not sure who to call or even what words to use for step one: scheduling an appointment.
It's no wonder they don't want to learn more about how to be a patient, since maneuvering through the health care system seems to be getting harder. The ever-increasing privatization of medicine has resulted in longer wait times, shorter visits, more indirect electronic communication, prior authorizations and more. In the name of increasing efficiency and reducing costs, these "innovations" are straining both the delivery and quality of health care, making it even more daunting, and less appealing, for young adults to engage. In fact, 60% of adults give the United States health care system an overall grade of C, D or F based on these challenges.
Social Media Information
Despite the increasing complexity of the health care system, there are a few important reasons for young adults to learn how to use it. Regular preventive health care can affect their long-term health: 18-25 year-olds have the highest rate of death from preventable causes like motor vehicle accidents and homicide, and they have higher rates of mental health problems, sexually transmitted infections and substance abuse. Likewise, if they don't know how to successfully make an urgent care appointment when sick, they may experience a delay in care that could lead to worsening illness. They also might not know that learning to navigate the health care system can affect their finances as well. Knowing when to go to an emergency room versus an urgent care center can make a significant difference in cost.
Educating young adults about the health care system is not only likely to improve their health outcomes, it could also help address health disparities.
Educating young adults about the health care system is not only likely to improve their health outcomes, it could also help address health disparities. Studies have shown that people of color often face greater challenges in both finding and accessing health care. Teaching our young adults about how the health care system works, we can work towards leveling the playing field and ensuring that everyone has the knowledge needed to access care effectively.
Seeking Advice
As a 53-year-old, I don't stand much of a chance of leveraging TikTok to teach young adults how to use the health care system. But parents of these young adults have a real chance at getting through to them. Recent data from the Pew Research Center shows that the majority of young adults text with their parents between once a day and a few times per week, and 7 in 10 parents report that their adult kids frequently ask them for advice about health among other topics. So despite the seemingly laissez-faire attitude they take towards health care, young adults are in fact willing to ask for help when they need it, and therein lies our opportunity.
I encourage parents to initiate more in-depth conversations about the health care system and help their young adult kids navigate it more efficiently. Just as we taught our children other life skills such as laundry, cooking and finances, we can also teach them about health care, leading by example. Here are some ways to do it:
- Include them in the basic actions you take regarding your own health.
- Explain different types of appointments (preventive, urgent care, specialist) and how to make them.
- Describe what a health appointment entails and what to bring to one (a list of questions, medications).
- Explain how to get prescriptions, choose pharmacies and compare the cost of drugs.
- Show them how to file insurance claims and find new doctors.
- Discuss how to coordinate specialists and find mental health help.
- Teach them how to locate local urgent care centers.
Maybe you don't know how to do some of these things yourself. That's OK — you can figure it out together. In fact, it's likely that your young adult kids can help you a bit in return. In this age of doing an electrocardiogram on your watch, juggling multiple logins to electronic medical records, "seeing" doctors via telemedicine and figuring out how artificial intelligence can step in as a doctor-on-call, your young adult may even have a leg up on you. They've grown up in the age of rapid tech development and have an innate understanding of modern communication and how to troubleshoot within it. The tech-savvy nature of Gen Zers and Millennials also presents a unique opportunity for us to learn from them.
By combining their inherent digital skills and our years of health experience and literacy, we can create a powerful synergy. It's time to equip our young adults with tools that enable them to care for themselves and in the process, we can improve health outcomes and foster a healthier, more informed and empowered population.
