Documentary Review: Unnatural Causes

This week we watched the documentary "Unnatural Causes." At the start of the documentary the listed off some interesting facts.

-The U.S. spends $2 trillion dollars a year on medical care.  That is about half that is spent world wide each year.

-Even though we spend a lot of money on health care we are still at #30 for life expectancy, which means we live shorter/sicker lives than other countries.

-There are 47 million Americans that go without health care.

-Social Influences affect health.

With just these few facts I feel that I learned a lot.  I couldn't believe that we were ranked 30 for health care, and we spend the most money on it.  That makes me wonder who is getting all the health care that we are spending so much on.  In the movie it focused on St.Louis.  They have done many studies in the different districts of St.Louis to show how money correlates with your health.  The higher your salary, the nicer neighborhood you live in, and the more power you have, essentially equals better health.  

Health and wealth hasn't just been compared in St.Louis.  In France, the minimum wage is twice as much as ours, they get more vacation time, and invest in better education systems.  So, the countries that distribute their wealth better have better health.

Throughout the movie the message that kept popping up in my mind is that Power=Money=Better Health.  All the studies that were done, no matter where they were done, always showed that those at the top of the ladder had better health that those at the bottom.  It made me think of how in America, "the land of opportunities", we have such wide range of incomes and it is really hard to move your way up if you don't have those resources available to you.  The documentary followed a few different families, one being the wealthier family, as he was a CEO.  They lived in a nice neighborhood with big yards and trees, and where the people felt safe and had places to go for walks.  He and the others in his district were rated with the best health and life expectancy of 79. It continued to follow a woman who is a Lab supervisor, middle-class, and lives in a fairly good neighborhood.  She lives in a nicer house, has a yard, and feels safe.  The life expectancy for her district is 75. Then it followed a lower middle-class family living in a poorer district, where the houses were closer together, didn't have much of a yard, and didn't feel as safe.  He worked a full time job as well as his wife and they were just making it.  They said the only way they could ever try to move is if one of them got a 2nd job, which would then increase the stress level and cause more health risks.  The people living in this district had a poorer level of health and only have a life expectancy of 73.  Finally it went to an even poorer district.  They followed a woman who lives on $200 dollars a month for groceries to feed her, her husband, and 3 children, and not much more for anything else.  She currently doesn't have a job and her husband is disabled. She doesn't feel safe in her neighborhood and the houses are so close you could touch the one next to it. The life expectancy in her district is 70.

My Thoughts

In my summary I was trying to get my point through that there is a correlation there that can't be ignored.  Money=Power and with Power it seems that you have better health.  I think this documentary really opened my eyes. I had no idea that there was even research going on for this type of thing.  It seems really logical when the information is laid out in front of you, but it isn't something that I think crosses many peoples minds.  It is definitely something that needs to be exposed to make people aware. 

Things to think about:

-Why is the U.S. ranked so low, even thought we spend so much money on our health care.

-What is being done about the issues?

-What are some ways that we can better our health care system, so people can live at a more equal level?

Here is a link to the documentaries website.  It has a lot of good information on there.  It even shows some case studies that are being done right now! 

http://www.unnaturalcauses.org/transcripts.php