During the first scenes of The Waiting Room, you see baggy-eyed doctors drinking coffee, people waiting for their turn to see a physician with strained, tired looking faces, sick kids showing their usual quirkiness and optimism while their worried parents look over them.
At the Highland Hospital in Oakland, California, you’ll see new but not necessarily fresh faces every day from all walks of life. Arabic women wearing veils over their faces, men dressed like the Dalai Lama, obese folks with plump bellies, Hispanic people, Black people, Asian people. What is one to expect in such a heavily populated area located in a state with almost the equivalent amount of people as Canada?
A comparison can’t quite fairly be made between the two healthcare systems of Canada and the U.S. without exposing the factors which influence the systems directly. First and foremost, the U.S. has approximately ten times as many people than Canada. Secondly, the second amendment allows the right for everybody to bear arms in the U.S., which leads to one of the highest rates of gun violence per capita in the country. Each year, 4.5 million guns are sold to the American public, adding to the estimated 283 million guns already in their hands. On average, approximately 30,000 people in the U.S. are killed by gun violence each year, with about 30 people per day getting shot and killed by guns. This doesn’t include injury related gun violence.
The U.S. healthcare system does not cater to everybody from the day they are born. No. Although their Medicare provides social health insurance for younger people, and adults aged 65+, they do not have a substantial program in place to provide everyone with healthcare. Unlike Canada, the U.S. healthcare system for the most part requires you to buy your own health insurance, unless you are insured by yours, or a family member’s employer. In November, 2012, about 12 million people in the U.S. labor force were unemployed, a figure which is slowly going down from October 2009’s estimated 15.5 million people unemployed. It is estimated that 50 million Americans are currently uninsured.
The Medicaid health program in the United States is a private health plan which essentially helps folks out with their hospital bills, but does not pay the entire shot. Medicaid is targeted at helping low income families with lower resources, and people with certain disabilities. The program does not help poverty stricken people, only the ones showing initiative with a family and a job. The Federal government helps pay roughly 60 percent of Medicaid expenses, leaving the rest up to the patient to cover.
Other healthcare insurance programs in the U.S. include the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, designed to cover uninsured children in families that do not have Medicaid. The Veteran’s Association cares for retired or disabled veterans and their families, while TRICARE provides military personnel and their children with healthcare.
Canadian healthcare on the other hand, is provided to every Canadian on the basis of need, rather than on the ability to pay. We are lucky in the fact that our system doesn’t show much indifference compared to that of our American neighbours. We pay into healthcare through taxes, which helps fund the system to help everyone in the country. Our constitution protects us in the way that it divides responsibilities between federal, provincial, and territorial administrations to ensure our care.
The Canadian federal government sets and administers national principles for the system through the Canada Health Act. This ensures that the proper criteria be met by provinces and territories. In return for good behavior, and following the required guidelines, full federal cash transfers are received in support of the administered health services.
Our Canadian healthcare system provides nation wide access to an array of necessary health services for citizens. When you receive health care in a hospital, for example, and are treated medically, you must only pay for room and board. Only in special and rare occasions will room and board be paid for by the government. Everything else will be covered by our national health insurance.
Other services like dental care, medication, vision care, medical equipment like wheelchairs are sometimes covered in expense. Depending on the individual’s situation, the costs will be varied. Seniors, people with disabilities, and low-income families are the exceptions to this. These service costs are different all around the country.
Those who do not qualify for these supplementary care services will pay out of pocket, unless they are covered by their’s or a family member’s employer. Coverage varies from person to person depending on the plan purchased.
The Waiting Room shows the life of real-time physicians and patients through the daily rotation in Highland Hospital. The film itself seems to lack a script, and runs on real people leading normal lives. The only stories in the film are that of the ailments and struggles the patients are faced with. The stories all have their own difficulties, ones that we as humans, can relate to.
A broke man, who has been unemployed almost a year shows true optimism through his nervous smile as he leads his horrified daughter through the crowded waiting room into the doctors office. His obligation for his sick and frail daughter diminishes his fear for the worst when he tells the camera he’s been in this situation before, ultimately losing his infant child years ago.
The last place a 15 year-old boy will be in is an operating room. He’s been shot. He loses blood fast while doctors fight the clock, fifteen of them at least. They scramble to save the young boy’s fragile life. He will never graduate. He’ll never get married or have kids. His family will weep and hopefully come to these harsh terms. Hopefully.
Outside, patients oblivious to the tragedy taking place meters away offer honest rants to each other about their own problems. They all have something in common. They’re all here for the same reason. Draining patience, strained vitality, and tedious groans escape them.
The documentary itself doesn’t provoke questions. Nor does it showcase one side of any argument. If there was an argument, it would be: “There needs to be more help for these people.” The film itself seems to show the obvious indifference of the American healthcare system. The film wasn’t appalling or surprising. We’ve all heard about the American healthcare system, and it doesn’t come as a shock to learn so many are dealing with health problems. Not with their rate of violence, unhealthy diets, over-prescribed medication, endless poverty, and extreme consumer-based nature. To them it seems health comes second.
The shooting and editing was fair. The shots were well taken, but many were noticeably out of focus and blurry. The documentary maker’s work was cut out for them when they chose to shoot inside a hospital. Seeing people in pain and agony, unsure and worried, sitting in the waiting room proved powerful. The raw anger expressed by some individuals showed their frustration. As one man yelled at his doctor while a tube stuck out of his chest. He threatened to pull the tube out, while the doctor warned it would kill him.
The filmmaker followed certain patients throughout. The patients would often tell the camera of their ailments, and later the doctor would give them the actual diagnosis. The story itself was based on these people, being told by their own words. The most powerful aspect of this way of shooting was that it was from their perspective, the actual sufferer. You couldn’t help but to notice the self-pity displayed in some of them just by the way they told their story. You could sense the regret and dismay in the man with the tumor in his testicles as he admitted he should have checked it out sooner.
The sound and music in the film adjusted well altogether. The emotional parts were complimented by sad, dreary music, while others were uplifted by the choice of background melody. They also did well to capture all parts of speech and cries made by the individuals. You couldn’t help but notice the alarms going off in the hospital during the film, as well as the blinking red light associated with it. Intercom noises and other background sounds were part of the film’s atmosphere and told the story well. There was no hiding it, and no attempt to hide it either.
American gun violence site:
American Healthcare system sites:
http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/101/16/2015.full
http://aspe.hhs.gov/health/reports/2012/uninsuredintheus/ib.shtml
Canadian Healthcare system sites:
The Undertow 