Before viewing the Frontline films “Sick in America” and “Sick Around the World” I have to say I was rather skeptical of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). As a person who has always had insurance available to me this was not an area I have a vast knowledge of other than second hand stories of insurance claims and companies gone awry. However, the videos brought home the reality that America’s system was failing most of its people. I found it intriguing that the host commented on several occasions in “Sick Around the World” that a particular countries (United Kingdom and Japan) system was “probably not to Americans taste” or “probably too close to socialist for Americans”. After seeing the films it is clear that the ACA was much more complicated than it first appears. All of our insurance companies are private and for profit, in most other countries around the world they are not. Some even believe that the ACA simply has not gone far enough and will be revamped to be closer to the healthcare models from countries like Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom (The Washington Post).

Although I acknowledge that change certainly needed to come in our healthcare system and was long overdue, there are clearly some drawbacks to the systems shown around the world. Taiwan is borrowing from banks to pay healthcare providers, doctors in Germany are protesting for higher wages and wait times to see doctors in the United Kingdom can be weeks or months. This is not to say that these are bad systems, but it would be prudent to learn from them and attempt to build on them than to copy them directly. The problem of insurance coverage strikes me as rather similar to that of poverty in that their is not one clear answer that will fix it and make all parties happy and able to function long term.

In reading DeParle I did not find that my perception of the ability of social welfare policy to fight poverty was changed drastically, but more of a new spin was put on it. DeParle told the gritty reality of what many people in America wake up to every morning. I appreciated the frankness of his writing, even if a little caught off guard by some of the more casual references to violence (i.e. when Hattie Mae was raped and ended up pregnant at the age of 12, DeParle, pg. 35.). I found this to be a great parallel with the women’s lives, they dealt with trauma on a regular basis and it was not likely reflected upon anymore than the lines in the book suggest. Although I came a way with a multitude of negative emotions from the book, I was impressed by the women in the book. They were all resourceful in their own ways. Each one of them used their unique gifts to survive in a cold and unyielding world.

With regards to what would be the most advantageous route to combat social policy, I have to say I am at a loss. My first thought was education. I inferred that education could certainly help people to have greater job opportunities, more likely a job they would enjoy and also financial gain. I then did some research about this angle and found that in the end, it is not much help. DeParle wrote an article for the New York Times online in which he follows three Mexican-American women from high school graduation to their mid-twenties. All three graduated high school with stable grades and acceptance to great schools. Four years alter, none of them have a college diploma, all are in debt and only one is still in school (New York Times-DeParle). The article further goes on to discuss some of the possible reasons for why this happens. In general, low-income students feel the need to help out at home, they don’t have a strong support system and even if they don’t help out at home they must still support themselves completely.