Sick Around The World Movie

Utilizing the film Sick around the World, aired in 2008 by PBS and Frontline, and produced and directed by Jon Palfreman, we can make a comparison between the healthcare systems of five progressive capitalist nations and America. We can review how The United Kingdom, Switzerland, Germany, Taiwan, and Japan would address key issues in the story of John Q. Issues like cost inflation, the uninsured and under-insured, and efficiency. To see if John Q is a uniquely American issue. For the European countries, the story of John is plausible but not readily possible, as many of the European countries apply a cost for health care, but a rather minimal one compared to the states. In Britain, Switzerland and Germany medical bankruptcy is unheard …show more content…
Taiwan is known to be the best in Asia when it comes to organ transplantation, the combination of its relatively new cutting edge health care system and a pro-organ donation public keeps supplies relatively plentiful. But on the other hand, despite Japan’s cheap costs for health care and its centralized universal insurance the state of organ transplantation in the country is abysmal as the huge organ shortage keeps organ transplantation to as low as 10 heart transplants a year compare to Taiwan’s 500 transplants for just one hospital – the highest of any of the capitalist nations [Chinanews, 2005]. If John Archibald was admitted his son into a Japanese hospital for treatment more than likely his son would die waiting for a new heart, but with John Archibald’s don’t-take-no-for-an-answer attitude he would go, like many affluent Japanese, overseas to China and Taiwan to participate in their many legal and illegal transplantation programs for a fraction of the cost in the U.S., about 250,000 USD at most [Clifford Coonan, …show more content…
When it comes to attaining the goals of an ideal healthcare system: accessible healthcare services to all citizens, cost-effective services, a standard quality of care amongst all services, and efficiency and compatibility amongst all services, these countries are much further down the line than pre-health care reform America. America in comparison faces issues of unequal and unfair access, poor quality control, an inefficient cumbersome system, and wasteful costs. Many of these issues stem from the sheer number and mishandling of the numerous financial arrangements, agencies, and payers. Our inefficient and ineffective health care system delivery rose out of a combination of our ethnic diversity and tense racial relations, our expansive physical environment, our rapid and demanding technological development, our capitalist and competitive economic conditions, our chronic social morbidity, our hostile global influences, and our plutocratic political climate. In such a system, John Archibald’s story becomes more than possible, but in the