Sick Around America

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Sick Around America

The documentary, Sick around America, by Frontline attempts at providing useful information regarding the dysfunctional nature of the United States healthcare system. Unlike its predecessor, Sick around the World, the sequel does not succeed at raising awareness effectively regarding the issue in question. In the first documentary, numerous single-payer schemes are portrayed. Interestingly, advocates for health reforms assumed that the sequel would concentrate on the single-payer scheme as an alternative for the healthcare system in the United States. After all, the subject is one of the most discussed issues within American society. However, Sick around America fails to cover this efficiently. More specifically, it does not provide relevant data that is useful in informing the public concerning the present politics encompassing health reforms. In addition to this, the documentary seems biased, particularly towards the health insurance sector in general. This may be in relation to the negative assumptions and perspectives that Americans hold against the respective industry. Hence, within the hour it covered, the documentary does not succeed in releasing relevant and imperative information since it fails to exploit its journalistic platform. Interestingly, Sick around America fails to deliver any meaningful or new information, especially involving the notion of heath reforms within American healthcare. The show’s first segment provides a narrative of people’s experiences in relation to health insurance. Despite the emotional appeal presented during the first thirty minutes of the program, the information that the interviewees exhibit to the audience is familiar and does not introduce any new arguments that may actually enlighten the viewer concerning the issue at hand. Additionally, discussions on the inner workings of the insurance market, consumer-oriented health plans, and the generic topic of insurance all constitute familiar topics that were especially covered in the first film. To this end, the documentary can only appeal to those that lack substantial information concerning the health insurance sector in the United States, only if they have not viewed the first documentary.