MovieChat Forums > The Waiting Room (2014) Discussion > Surprising

Surprising

posted 11 years ago by Zero1020
3 replies | jump to latest

I couldn't believe how similar my ER experience was to this documentary.

Everything from the 13 hour wait to the doctors that are so overloaded that they can't help very much unless you're shot or having a stroke/heart attack.
As our population grows and more people are pushed into poverty I cannot imagine how our health care system will cope. Tack on our incredible and disgusting spending on military projects our health care services for the poor will surely collapse.

If the corporations insist on moving uneducated jobs overseas in their eternal hunt for higher profits what are the poor to do? How are the patients expected to pay even 10% of a hospital bill if they are barely affording rent and food?

Even the universities have slowed their graduation rates of physicians and more doctors are moving on the private practices. Are the middle class and rich the only ones that deserve to be healthy? I'm not sure if this health care epidemic is limited to just health or if it could cause the collapse of the entire country as the poor masses swell to unmanageable levels.

[–] Oleander2010 10 years ago

If the corporations insist on moving uneducated jobs overseas in their eternal hunt for higher profits

This has been my point for some time now. I realize that there are multiple sides to every situation and story, but we often focus on certain issues, such as illegal immigration and its effect on the job market/economy; without considering how much outsourcing impacts this country. It has some similar results to our nation; mainly financial output with no/limited input. One is illegal and stigmatized, the other legal and encouraged.

We can't have discussions on the former without discussing the implications of the latter. But as long as we focus on the destitute and their "burden" on this country, we can continue ignoring the devastation that major corporations and industries bring to its citizens.

No matter one's position in life, we should all have to answer to or acknowledge the result of our actions; the problem is, only some people are held accountable for their circumstances and the effect they have on others...while some have enough resources and support to completely disregard it.

[–] melinda2001 10 years ago

as long as we focus on the destitute and their "burden" on this country, we can continue ignoring the devastation that major corporations and industries bring to its citizens.

It's nice that you guys agree though it might help to look at this another way. Corporations only exist to return value to their shareholders. Supreme Court decisions aside, corporations are not people. They don't have feelings. Sure, they're completely run by people, but those people can't put anyone else's benefit above that of the corporation or they will immediately lose their job, and possibly be sued as well.

I think it's good this way in that it makes the problem much simpler. We should tax both people and corporations according to their income, and use that revenue to fund what is essentially free, quality healthcare for everyone in the country, just like all the other rich nations. If you get sick in Europe or Japan or wherever, you make an appointment or walk in, and it will cost you nothing, and you don't need to be a citizen. They'll help out Americans without insurance just as they do their own citizens. You won't just get dumped on the streets. We need that here, and regardless of what you might think, Obamacare is beginning to deliver that.

I'm definitely with Zero that cutting out the lion's share of our obscene military spending will be another great way to fund what should be a human right, so we do have some common ground at least.

[–] oneseat 8 years ago

I am agreeing with all of you but replying two years later, when some major insurance companies are bailing out of Obamacare and screwing their customers. This is fodder for the Republican asshats in the House and the Senate who have repeatedly wasted everyone's time trying to overturn the ACA. It is time to see if a public option, like an expanded Medicare deal to people 55-64 or 0-5 works.

I have lived in Canada and spent time in Western Europe. Single-payer health care works.

There are no uninteresting things, only uninterested people. – G.K. Chesterton