Sick Around The World: Documentary Analysis

The health-care system of Japan and United States are vastly different in terms of their approaches to provide health-care to their citizens. The documentary, “Sick Around the World”, describes how Japan is a capitalist country, yet, they only spend approximately half the amount as the U.S. does on health-care. In the U.S., the government provides health-care for the elderly with Medicare and health-care for low-income families with Medicaid. The U.S. also favors private and for-profit insurance. In order for the citizens to have access to health-care, people in the U.S. would have to rely on different ways optimize their health insurance because premiums affect the costs of deductibles, copayments, as well as coinsurance. In addition, Steven E. Barkan, the author of Health, Illness, and Society, suggests that U.S. health-care is detrimental for people under the age of 65 because “before Obamacare took full effect, 13.4% of Americans lacked health insurance; this figure rose to

18.5% of adults under age 65" (p. 218). When compared with Japan, who uses a social insurance model, the government aids those who do not have enough income for health-care; however, every citizen has health-care because a health-insurance policy is required, and is obtained through their jobs or a community-based insurer.
Moreover, there is a higher percentage of private institutions such as hospitals and clinics in Japan when compared to the institutions in the United States.

There is a fixed price for treatments because the Japanese health ministry controls the prices by negotiating with the physicians in order to determine the prices of health-care. On the contrary, with Obamacare, people are wary of out-of-network services because they fear that they will be responsible for the high or even full out-of-pocket costs of their treatment, in which Barkan exemplifies how "companies provide fewer benefits to patients using an out-of-network provider or sometimes restrict coverage to in-network providers altogether” (p. 231). In addition, according to Barkan, in the United States, “another reason for the U.S. health disadvantage is the lack of adequate primary health" (p. 196). On the contrary, in Japan, visits to general practitioners, or gatekeepers, are unnecessary if the patients want to seek a

specialist.
The solution from Escape Fire best for reforming the current U.S. healthcare system is to encourage individuals to lead a healthier lifestyle to reduce stress and chronic diseases or illnesses. In the U.S., citizens are more focused on seeking treatment once they have developed a chronic disease or illness because they have never committed to healthy lifestyle habits that may decrease its likelihood. Unfortunately, the Department of Agriculture subsidizes unhealthy food products, in which the money made by the lobbies goes to Congress. Moreover, nearly a trillion dollars each year is going towards treating the patients who develop chronic diseases and illnesses such as obesity, diabetes, strokes, heart disease, and cancer, because of their unhealthy lifestyles. In addition, it is also necessary for the government to advocate healthy lifestyles for its citizens. For example, I agree that Medicare should fund the lifestyle program lead by Dr. Ornish, in order to create a support system for people who choose to make wiser health decisions. In addition, our environment, such as work, should encourage health incentives in order to motivate employees. For example, Safeway employees are rewarded for their health behaviors by receiving a deduction to their health-care costs and premiums.
A thought-provoking scene that demonstrates why U.S. health-care is a privilege and is not a right is found in “Sick Around the World”. In the documentary, T.R. Reid interviews elderly women who are protesting the privatization of hospitals in the UK. More importantly, the women explain to Reid that they have never paid a medical bill in their lives. They are carrying signs that read “No U.S. style Health-service”. This scene is indicative that the U.S. health-care is more-so a privilege because when compared to other developed nations, such as the UK, there are citizens who have never been liable for paying their medical bills, and health-care seems to be more of a right for their citizens. Yet, in the United States, many citizens have high out-of-pocket costs for health-care and "people may simply wish to save some money and take the gamble that they will not become sick or injured." (Barkan, p. 230). These financial restrictions demonstrate that health-care is only a privilege in the U.S., if that is, one can afford it. Unfortunately, it is unrecognized that health-care is a right as they are most developed nations.