John Q is an excellent film demonstrating the problems facing Americans in health care these days. It's about father, John Q, whose son has become fatally ill and needs a heart transplant immediately, but the father cannot pay for the surgery because his insurance does not cover it. John takes extreme action and holds a whole emergency room hostage until his son's name is put on the donor list. In the end John's son received a heart and John Q was sent to jail for the kidnapping of innocent people. .
In Canada, we deliver health care based on need, not as in the United States where health care is measured based on ability to pay. Survey data shows that more than 70 percent of Canadians are confident that they will get the health-care services they need. 81 percent were satisfied with their care. The only way the United States ever will come even close to those numbers is when they realize that millions of people in that country are poor and cannot afford the extreme payments needed for health care. The difference is that United States doctors are paid by the job therefore giving them motivation to do more surgeries, as opposed to Canada. .
In the case against John Q, I being the judge would probably have to send him away as well to jail. I would give him a sentence of 1-3 years because his crimes were not that extreme. He should be punished for breaking the law only to prevent this occasion to happen again. In reality, he should have never had to do this in the first place. As a parent, I would do anything for my child. If that means risking a couple years of my life to save 50 years of my child's I would do it without a second thought. As a society I think there should be protest and campaigns trying to regulate some sort of system where people in these situations could make donations or payments towards their child's or their health care. The hospital could be more lenient with situations like these and compromise with families and communities.
