What do a group of older American travelers think are high priorities for improving Americans’ health?
On a recent tour in South America, I asked each of my 24 fellow tourists their thoughts on several health care topics. This first post in a series is intended to start conversations about their ideas, online and offline. Today’s question was “What should be some high priorities for improving the health of Americans?”
We need to take actions to both improve our lifestyles through better exercise and nutrition (n=11), and expand access to health care to all Americans, they say (n=10)*
Improving our lifestyles:
1. Healthy food is less accessible and more expensive than unhealthy options, and changing that could help improve our health (n=5)
“A lot of people don't have access to good food at a reasonable price, so you talk about obesity being a problem, but they don't have grocery stores near them that sell things that are good and this fast food is cheaper.”
Some said government should do more to guide or ban unhealthy contents in foods and medicines
2. Public messaging on the importance of healthy diet and exercise has been intense in recent years, but some choose to continue unhealthy patterns: “It’s my body.” (n=3)
One suggested more people should have access to nutritional counseling
One suggested that health messaging be stepped up from celebrities, religious leaders, and political leaders; together this could have an impact
3. Several recommended a focus on children: If we could instill better health habits in children, the next generation could be healthier as adults. (n=6)
“Starting with healthy habits and education when children are younger, but recognizing that there are constraints and limitations to achieving that, both from income,…food deserts, things like that, so more education about how to live the healthiest life that you can within constraints”
One suggested the schools should teach more individual sports in addition to their usual emphasis on team sports, since individual sports (such as tennis, golf, swimming) can last a lifetime
One suggested there must be a better way to make healthy food tasty for children, to overcome the perceived tradeoff between health and taste
Expanding access to care to all Americans:
1. All Americans should have insurance coverage or otherwise be able to access health care (n=10)
Some favored a national health system, either
o As a way to improve fairness: “with the concierge systems and all of that coming in these last years, it's like the haves and have nots in terms of healthcare have just gotten greater.”
o Or to “eliminate the economic value sucked out by the insurance companies.”
Others supported coverage for all through the Affordable Care Act’s Health Insurance Marketplace, or did not specify how, but stated achieving coverage for all should be a high priority.
Several highlighted access issues for specific populations that should be improved: access to affordable caregivers to support aging at home, access to women’s healthcare services, and access to mental health care services.
Other high priorities for some in the group:
Provide strong funding: (n=3)
o For research through NIH and CDC
§ One specifically highlighted research for cancer and Alzheimer’s disease
§ One emphasized funding research for both common and rare diseases, not leaving people behind
o For Medicare, Medicaid, Marketplace coverage
Stop or at least reduce medical or pharmaceutical advertising (n=2)
Shift health care decision-making away from insurance executives toward health professionals (n=1)
Improve city designs to be more exercise-friendly (n=1)
*The numbers in parentheses are the number out of 20 who focused on the summary point. Note the participant chose the focus, they were not prompted beyond the open question. This is the first post from the Healthcare for the People by the People Project, self-funded by Bluemont Health Consulting LLC. Suzanne Felt-Lisk of Bluemont Health Consulting LLC interviewed a convenience sample of 24 American international travelers on a trip visiting South America in August/September 2025. This post describes responses from the 20 who responded and were ages 63+. They hailed from 9 states covering all census regions. 60% were female, 90% were Caucasian, with non-Hispanic ethnicity. They were relatively high income, educated to a Bachelor’s degree or higher, and were relatively healthy and active as was necessary to join the trip. Otter.ai was used to record and transcribe the in-person interviews, which were analyzed by Felt-Lisk. Additional questions were also discussed and will be shared in future posts.
I thought they had some good ideas! What do you think? Feel free to leave comments.