John Q: Health Communication and Problems with Healthcare Literacy

Health communication is a very important part of society today.  Though many people have health insurance, many are health care illiterate.  According to Healthy People 2010 health literacy is defined as, "The degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions (Glassman, 2012)."
This communication describes the understanding of many aspects of healthcare such as health insurance, medical terminology, and health procedures just to name a few.  When we have a lack of health literacy, the outcome can tend to be poor (DeWalt, 2008).  The communication between health provider and patient usually ends with a huge gap in understanding what the provider has told the patient and what the patient has understood.  This also happens with health insurance providers.  The recipients of health care insurance tend to not understand that health insurance does not provide coverage for all medical conditions and procedures, which leaves the recipient feeling angered and helpless when fighting a condition that is not covered.
         John Q. is a movie about a man whom has a job that had been changed from a full-time job to a part-time job.  When this change occurred,  his health care benefits were cut.  John was not aware of the change in benefits due to his cut in hours at his job.  John and his wife were at a ballgame watching their son play baseball when their son collapses on the field.  They rush their son to the hospital where a battery of tests were performed.  The tests showed that their son had a heart condition and needed a heart transplant.  The communication between the health care providers and the patients parents show the gap in health literacy.  This movie accurately describes how health care professional use medical terminology instead of trying to relay information in terms which the patient can understand. This only creates more tension and unhelpful worry and upset because the patient and/or family do not comprehend what the healthcare provider is explaining.  The lack in health literacy is creating many problems by causing undue stress to individuals that are already under more stress in which they can handle (Balliro, 2011). http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=dL0J7jRKsPs
        After John and his wife were told that his son needed a heart transplant they were told how their healthcare insurance would not cover the entire amount of $250,000 dollars and that they would be responsible for $75,000 dollars.  Before the hospital would put John's son on the donor list though, John would have to give the hospital the $75,000 dollars.  His son remains in the hospital, progressively get worse due to his heart condition, while John tries to get the money to get his son on the transplant list.  After some amount of time, the hospital decides to send John's son home because they have been unable to get the $75,000 dollars.  John's wife calls John to tell him that the hospital is going to send their son home and she tells John that he "has to do something."

       John at this point feels completely helpless and knows that if his son is released from the hospital that he will die.  He decides that his is going to go to the hospital with a gun and takes hostages until he can have his son put on the donor list.  The communication errors that have happened and the lack of his employer and health insurance company to properly explain his health care insurance to John has lead him to drastic measures where he feels that holding hostages is the only way for him to help his son.  Society is creating situations like this one in the movie because of the gap in health communication between both physicians and health insurance carriers and the employee/beneficiary.  When people are already stressed out since their loved one is unhealthy, this creates a situation in which people feel that the only measures to take are drastic ones.  Most people whom have health care insurance do not understand that just because you are sick and you have health insurance, this does not mean your insurance provider will cover you illness or will allow you to get the best treatment for the illness.  Health insurance companies have not helped to bridge the gap of their beneficiaries properly understanding what exactly their insurance covers.  The information that is provided from the health insurance provider is usually at such a language that unless you have extensive knowledge about the healthcare field, you are at a great disadvantage at understanding what your policy covers and does not cover (Krugman, 2009).

       As John holds the people in the emergency room hostage, he speaks with a hostage negotiator and agrees to release some to the hostages in exchange for his son being put on the heart donor list.  The negotiator speaks with the hospital and his son is put on the donor list and the some of the hostages are released.  While in the emergency room with the hostages, John has no intentions of killing any of the hostages.  His explains what has put him in this situation and how he actually plans on killing himself in order for his son to receive his heart as the transplant.  John speaks with the negotiator again and is able to speak with his son one last time and tell him his goodbyes before he kills himself.  Now that John has spoke with his son, he puts the gun to his head and tries to pull the trigger, but the safety is on.  John then takes the safety off of the gun and gets ready to commit suicide when the police have his wife tell him that there is a woman who has died in a car accident and that she has the same blood type as their son and that she is being transported to the hospital for organ harvesting.  John puts down the gun and allows the hostages to go free.  The police rush into the emergency room and place John under arrest.  John's son receives the life saving heart transplant and John is taken to trial for the hostage situation.  During the trial, many of the hostages testify on John's behalf.  Though the outcome of the trial is not stated, it is heard from John's lawyer that no judge would give him more than three to five years (John Q, 2002).
       Though this movie is not a true story, one can understand how a situation like this could occur.  With many people having a lack of health literacy and healthcare communication between provider and patient, people at times feel that drastic measures are the only way to solve problems.  If we as a society can begin to bridge with gap of health literacy and communication between providers and patients, we can hopefully create less stress on individuals already stressed out and can allow for the patients' and their families to be given information at a level which they can understand and be able to make proper and effective medical decisions without feeling as if drastic measures are the only way to solve problems.
                                                                          Works Cited
Balliro, Lenore (2009). Managing Stress to Improve Learning. Literacy Information and Communication System. http://lincs.ed.gov/pipermail/healthliteracy/2011/006210.html

DeWalt, Darren (2008). The Problems Associated with Low Health Literacy. University of North Carolina. www.nchealthliteracy.org/.../Health%20Literacy%20101.pp

Glassman, Penny (2011). Health Literacy. National Network of Libraries of Medicine. http://nnlm.gov/outreach/consumer/hlthlit.html

John Q. (2002). New Line Cinema

Krugman, Paul (2009). Health Care Miscommunication. The New York Times. http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/16/health-care-miscommunication/