The Patient Protection and Affordable Healthcare Act signed into law March 23, 2010 under President Obama offers a whole list of new protections including: preventing discrimination based on health status, stopping insurance rate hikes, ending lifetime and annual rate caps, preventing discrimination based on gender, subsidizing insurance costs, expanding Medicaid and CHIP, promoting insurance amongst smaller companies and requiring it amongst larger companies, and requiring the insurance coverage of ambulatory care, hospitalization, maternity care, mental health care, at least one prescription drug of each type, rehabilitative services, and many preventative exams [Obamacarefacts, 2015]. While the Act does not truly make insurance universal
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it can be assumed that the director intentionally chose to make John Q. an African American man. With a disproportionate percentage, 19.7%, of the uninsured being African-American it is obvious that there are outside forces in play when it comes to the access of people of color to healthcare [CBPP, 2005]. It is unclear whether the director chose for John Q. to be African American due to typicality of the underinsured being black or as an influence to the future events of the film, that is, the refusal of the government and hospital to care for or comply with John Archibald’s demands. The question is, could all of these dilemmas occur to a white male main character? Absolutely, more than likely dilemmas like these happened on a daily basis for anyone, regardless of race, who was uninsured or underinsure. But, whether the government or hospital would reject the white main character’s demands for the sake of preserving the status quo with consideration of his race cannot be proven. Ultimately, when it comes to the healthcare system it is more of an issue of who can afford health care, the disproportionate numbers African-American uninsured is due to the disproportionate numbers African-American indigent, uneducated, and sick who result from the continued paradigm of systematic racism that plagues this country today that makes it harder for African-Americans to receive higher education, escape the poverty trap, and
it can be assumed that the director intentionally chose to make John Q. an African American man. With a disproportionate percentage, 19.7%, of the uninsured being African-American it is obvious that there are outside forces in play when it comes to the access of people of color to healthcare [CBPP, 2005]. It is unclear whether the director chose for John Q. to be African American due to typicality of the underinsured being black or as an influence to the future events of the film, that is, the refusal of the government and hospital to care for or comply with John Archibald’s demands. The question is, could all of these dilemmas occur to a white male main character? Absolutely, more than likely dilemmas like these happened on a daily basis for anyone, regardless of race, who was uninsured or underinsure. But, whether the government or hospital would reject the white main character’s demands for the sake of preserving the status quo with consideration of his race cannot be proven. Ultimately, when it comes to the healthcare system it is more of an issue of who can afford health care, the disproportionate numbers African-American uninsured is due to the disproportionate numbers African-American indigent, uneducated, and sick who result from the continued paradigm of systematic racism that plagues this country today that makes it harder for African-Americans to receive higher education, escape the poverty trap, and