John Q. Desperate: Hollywood takes on health insurance

A new movie points an accusing finger at inequities in the health care system, with a message for Washington: Fix it!

By Amy Snow Landa, AMNews staff. March 4, 2002.

Washington -- Even before "John Q" was released in movie theaters, the health insurance industry had begun to spin its counter-message.

The film "reinforces ridiculous stereotypes about health care, glorifies violence as a means of problem-solving and needlessly frightens the public," the Blue Cross Blue Shield Assn. charged in a news release issued almost a week in advance.

The day before the movie opened, the American Assn. of Health Plans began running full-page ads in Washington, D.C., and Hollywood newspapers declaring that "the fictional character John Q. has the wrong answer for America's health care cost crisis."

It seems the film has struck a raw nerve with managed care executives, who learned four years ago with the release of "As Good As It Gets," that slamming their industry can play very well with movie-goers.

In that film, actress Helen Hunt called HMOs a string of obscenities, and movie audiences cheered with gusto, revealing a groundswell of anti-HMO sentiment. Politicians and the media took note, and in 1998 managed care reform exploded into a major political issue -- both in Washington and on the campaign trail.

Now Hollywood is back with another film -- in another election year -- that contains a message about America's health care system. This time the message is that not just HMOs but the entire system is in need of reform. The question remains whether the film will spur action in Washington.

"John Q" is an uncomfortable film in which a seemingly cold-hearted hospital administrator denies a child life-saving medical treatment. The reason? His family's insurance policy does not cover the $250,000 cost of a heart transplant. In the absence of insurance coverage, the hospital refuses to put the boy's name on the heart recipient list unless his parents pay $75,000 up front. [...]