John Q

Janny Scott’s article, “Life at the Top in America Isn’t Just Better, It’s Longer,” follows three different people as they recover from a heart attack; Jean Miele, Will Wilson, and Ewa Rynczak Gora. Though each person in the article suffered a heart attack around the same time, their treatment and recovery processes were vastly different. Economic inequality had a huge influence on how each person was treated during and after their heart attacks. When Mr. Miele suffered his heart attack, he understandably chose the nicest hospital to receive his treatment. However, when Ms. Gora was suffering from her heart attack, she wasn’t given a choice of hospitals, she was simply taken to the closest city hospital. Unlike Ms. Gora, Mr. Miele had the means to afford the best care possible; he could afford the best hospital, he could afford the best surgery, and he could afford to follow the best recovery plan. Ms. Gora’s lack of wealth an integral reason why she did not recover from her heart attack in the way the Mr. Miele, and even Mr. Wilson, did.

In life, people are put into difficult situations where a choice has to be made. Certain choices can affect the outcome of a person's entire life. In the movie John Q, many characters are forced to make tough decisions.

It is not just the poverty-stricken population that can’t afford insurance. The cost of U.S. health care and insurance is out of reach even for those who do not live in what we technically classify as “poverty”. By the 2003 Federal Poverty Guidelines, released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human services, poverty

Money plays a huge role in access, therefore it is a vital issue to discuss. Within the current system, lack of money results in lack of health care, which leaves thousands of people without any health care coverage. Between 2001 and 2005, the number of people paying for health insurance increased 30%, however income only raised 3% (Health Care Problems). Adequate income is a necessity and unfortunately that is not present. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, the average annual premium across the country is $16,000. Currently, the average annual income in the United States is $51,107. Mint Money Management suggests that about 4-6% of one’s total income should be spent on insurance, including life, disability, and health insurance. However, the averages in the United States show that the average person spends about 31% of their income on health insurance, which is not financially beneficial. When this rise in health insurance is not parallel to the inflation of income, innocent people are left without a method to achieve health care. There is a program for those who can’t afford health insurance out of pocket nor have access to it, and that is called Medicaid. Issues still exist with the program. There is only so much funding, which leaves many still uninsured. Additionally, people with Medicaid have difficulty

In the book “mama might be better off dead” written by Laurie Kaye Abraham, tells a story of Jackie Banes and her family, and their struggles to hold the family’s health together. Her grandmother Mrs. Cora Jackson, who pretty much raised her, has suffered the amputation of one leg because of uncontrolled diabetes. Jackie’s father, Tommy, who has suffered a stroke because he didn’t care about the consequences of high blood pressure. Jackie’s husband, Robert, who has a progressive kidney disease. Abraham has gone out of her way to find more about the American health care system in North Lawndale, Illinois. Throughout the book she talks about how the health care system in America is so unfair and unsatisfactory to the needs of poor people such as the Banes’s Family.

The film, John Q, demonstrates the issues that the United States deals with involving health insurance. Until recently, the U.S. had faced a huge dilemma when it came to the amount or type of coverage one received from their health insurance; of course, nothing is ever perfect and there are still kinks that need to be worked out. Throughout the movie it is clear that the amount of love this father has for his son is astronomical, so he decides to take matters into his own hands and work out the issues himself. This media evaluation will discuss the movie John Q and the issues with health insurance that we see in it, and may even be dealing with today, by touching on the following topics:

Widening economic inequality in the United States is being accompanied by increasing health care disparity. While the health care system seeks to provide health care as a human right, it fails to do so often worsening the disparities (Dickman, Himmelstein, & Woolhandler, 2017). While health care today has made major strides, there are many people who are still suffering from health care system injustices. Of the people who are still uninsured a majority of them are in the middle-working class or those living in poverty. Poor Americans have less access to health care than wealthy Americans. The life expectancy gap between the rich and poor continues to widen. Health care in poor communities is too often neglected. This issue has been a trend in the United States for many years. In Abraham’s book, Mama might be better off dead these very same inequalities are evident for the Banes family. Because of these inequalities, preventive illness becomes life threatening causing care to then become extensive and even more expensive.

Financial barriers to access health care are common in a low-income family when they are uninsured or underinsured. Many uninsured and undocumented immigrant received federal and state health care coverage. Latinos and African American are the ethnicities that are disproportionally get affected. Limited access to a doctor when they are sick, taking non-prescribed medication and holding off recommended treatment is only some of the problems they encountered (Carrillo et al., 2011).

In a survey conducted in 2003, it highlighted that the recurrent problem is the reimbursement rate from Medicaid to the physician (O’Shea, 2007). The Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC) show that 21% of physicians that state they accept Medicaid have reported they will not accept a new Medicaid patient in 2004-2005(O’Shea, 2007). This number would only logically be assumed to have risen in 2013 A survey conducted by the U.S. National Health reported that researchers have found two standout trends among Medicaid beneficiaries: they have more difficulty getting primary care and specialty care and they visit hospital emergency departments more often than those with private insurance (Seaberg, 2012). The lack of primary and specialty care access is mostly contributed to the following barriers; unable to reach the MD by phone, not having a timely appointment with the MD and lastly unable to find a specialty MD that will accept Medicaid. In a recent report released by the Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease, it stated that about 30% of Medicaid patients experience “extreme uncoordinated care”, there is a strong correlation between this situation and higher Medicaid spending and less quality of care given (Bush, 2012). After January 1st 2013, healthcare providers have experienced a 2% reduction in payments for Medicaid beneficiary, this will only create more of a problem for these patients to seek the

As mentioned previously, another factor that may contribute to disparities in care is the choice of location for a practice. Many patients, particularly those who are economically disadvantaged, may have difficulty commuting to a practice that is far from their community, especially if it is outside of the area serviced by public transportation. Furthermore, even if they can make it to the practice, they may be placing themselves at an even further economic

In today’s society, there is still a great struggle with health care disparities and many lives are affected by the lack of this fundamental program in our society. There are millions of people who die each year because they are unable to afford quality healthcare. The debate still continues about healthcare inequalities, what causes this disparity and who are affected by it. Health care is more of a necessity rather than a luxury and even though skeptics may argue to the latter, it only underlines the importance of the need for the wellbeing and care of individuals. There are several factors that could contribute to the lack of health care in the United States which ranges from but not limited to race, gender, socio- economic status, and lack of insurance coverage. The truth is there is a great disproportion between who can really afford quality healthcare as appose to individuals who have it. One would imagine that an employed individual would easily afford quality healthcare but we could be no further from the truth, since one’s economic status is an essential determinant to its affordability.

Despite the improvements made toward health reform, there are still problems that need to be address. There are still cost related access problems among insured adults, particularly among people with lower incomes. According to the Commonwealth Fund Biennial Health Insurance Survey of 2014, 33 percent of adults who had been insured all year with incomes under 200 percent of poverty and 25 percent with incomes above that level said they did not get needed care because of costs in the past 12 months (Collins et al., 2015). The high deductibles and cost sharing in both employer and individually purchased private plans lead many adults to delay or avoid needed care (Collins et al., 2015). Also there is still a large share of adults who were insured all year but still struggle to pay their medical bills. People with lower incomes reported these problems at the highest rates. One third (34%) of adults with incomes under 200 percent of poverty who were insured all year

This is a paper about the issues involving uninsured Americans and what we can do to improve healthcare in America.

Financial Issues: These incorporated challenges like decrease in government funding, issues with Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement, decrease in inpatient activity, growing costs for staff and supplies, bad

Under a free-market system, health care is characterized in three ways – cost, access, and quality. In the United States, a mixed economic system that favors a free market system, health care is characterized as high cost, low access, and high quality. As such, these dichotomies pose an imperfect, inefficient scenario – the high cost and low access of health care lead people to not purchase insurance, while the high quality of health care drives people to still receive health care services. As a result, millions of Americans are currently uninsured, yet still utilizing various health care services, and are unable to pay their medical bills. This poses yet another conundrum - how can uninsured individuals receive medical care without paying for it? More importantly, who ends up paying for these services? Having recognized this gap between receiving medical care and paying for medical care,