JOHN Q: A hero or a villain?

As one way of helping us understand one of the topics (Health) included in the course outline of our NSTP-CWTS subject, our instructor, Mr. Chino Arvie Santos found an opportunity for us to watch a movie entitled JOHN Q last September 9.

John Q is a story of a father struggling and desperately trying to save his son's life lying weakly in a hospital bed suffering from LVH (left ventricular hyperthrophy) which is fast leading to a lethal Congenital Heart Failure. For this cause, his son, Mike critically needs a heart transplant to be able to overcome the heed of death.

In order to push through with the surgery, Mike's name needs to be put on a donor's list which alone would cost John and his family a big amount of money. Knowing how low the odds are, John still decides to pursue with the surgery. But due to some protocols and insurance records stating that Mike is not covered by John's insurance policy as a result of technicalities, the hospital dismissed Mike's case inspite of the fact that John had already come up with 30% of the downpayment which he raised up by selling almost all of his possessions and by the kind-heartedness of his friends. Hopeless and disoriented, John thought of one last resort for his son to get medical attention; to hold the people in the ER of the hospital as hostages.

Now, there are a lot of things this film was able to depict to me as a person who belongs to a society, which I can say, has a very similar setting to that of John Q. Archibald. This film is a protest against discrimination, disparity and inequality when it comes particularly to healthcare and other social issues people are currently facing.

I wanted to make this post as formal as possible, but in the line of giving better insights, I have decided to put it in a bulleted format so that it can be more meaningful. Here are the things which the story was able to make me realize:

1. High educational background has a direct influence on what will be your future socio-economic status.

It was obviously illustrated that having a low-paying job as machinery guy in a factory did not work quite well for John and his family. There was a scene where John’s wife’s car was being towed away as a result of him not being able to pay their bills. Supposing John had a better educational degree or attainment for a more ideal job like a lawyer or a doctor, he would generate a lot of income, thus, ranking them to a higher socio-economic status.

2. Healthcare and medical services directly influences a person's socio-economic stability.

Let's take a case similar to that of John Q but somewhat a little different. A factory worker who earns a minimum wage of Php260 has 4 kids, 3 of which are schooling and 1 still a baby. He's the only one who generates income for the family because his wife is left at home tending and raising up the children. One day on his way home, he met an accident and injured his head thus, needing to undergo a CT Scan. Summing up his monthly income, we get around Php6,000. A CT Scan nowadays costs around Php5000. Considering that there are still other tests that the doctor will order and medicines that the doctor will prescribe, how will this family survive?

As we can see, the above case mirrors how getting hospitalized nowadays can create a major set-back not only in a person's economic life, but we can say almost all aspect of his life as well.

3. A person’s socio-economic status can play a role in affecting the judgement and rationale of people interacting with the individual.

Sad but true that in this world, it is not always about the VALUES but the VALUE of a person. One particular scene in the film that can illustrate this is when Hope Memorial Hospital Director, Rebecca Payne, was insisting that John and his wife, Elise, should just let their son go home and wait for his last breath because the heart transplant costs $250,000; an amount that all of them knew the Archibald family could not afford to pay. Another scene was Dr. Turner is seen being very accommodating to a wealthy man, who has undergone heart transplant, and to his wife; but how uneasy and uncomfortable he felt when John, looking like a very common man, wanted to have a conversation with him.
These scenes led me to see how some people can easily dismiss others because of the things lacking in their life especially money.

4. The government should take actions on how they could make healthcare services and medical benefits MORE favorable to people who have low and unstable income.

There are certain programs of our government which hits this issue but the pressing question is, "Are those programs enough to truly say that it has solved these kinds of problems?". Honestly, I think that there are still a lot to be done. Why? Because there are accounted cases of people resorting to selling their internal organs and other body parts just to save a loved one dying on a hospital bed or to have means to feed their family. There are reported cases of people being detained on a hospital for months because they were not able to pay their hospital bills and charges. I just hope that the government can do more to target these issues.As this film has opened the eyes of the government of the United States to improve their healthcare system especially about health insurance policies, I hope that things like this will also prompt our government to do the same.

5. Lastly, this film has shown me the true essence of being a parent to a child and the true essence of being a family.
Holding people as hostages eventhough he knows that it is a crime and almost committing suicide to donate his heart for his son to have fighting chance to survive are John Q's way of saying how determined he is not to give up and lose hope and how willing he is to die for his son which he loves deeply and dearly. If I was in his shoes, I would probably do the same.

I admire John Q's wife for being supportive to him. That's how a husband and wife should suppose to deal with trials and divine testings of family life. Eventhough John Q's means of dealing with the problem was a little off the moral scale, he prevailed over it by not losing hope and fighting for his son's life that only goes to show how John was able to maintain the tight bond and the deep foundation of his family; a family, which is in the first place, the basic unit of a society.

The question left now is......Is John Q a hero...or a villain?