Flying Hospital
Insert Final
Report / Camera: Katinka Nowotny
Editing: Fabian Wittmann
00:08
It is Sunday morning in Macon County, Tennessee, a poor, white area of the southern United States.
Despite a tornado warning, people have travelled hundreds of kilometres in the night to get here.
00:22
Dozens of volunteers are preparing for the huge task ahead.
00:26
Many of the patients have waited years for a medical exam. Today they have a free one. This is the first time the aid organisation Remote Area Medical has come to this part of the Volunteer State.
Seat numbers are given out.
00:39
Mrs OT
"I'm going to have a few of my teeth drawn."
00:43 –00:45 OPEN
00:45
The organisation’s founder lands his private C-47 Stan Brock. By profession he is an actor, famous in the US for the film series Wild Kingdom. But at heart he is an adventurer, having spent his early years living in the South American rainforest.
01:06 – 0:.42 OT Stan Brock Gründer Remote Area Medical
"I grew up in the Amazon region. To be a doctor, you had 20 days to march through the jungle. Remote Area Medical organization originally helped people in the remote parts of Latin America. Then we were asked if we can also work in the United States. And suddenly, we have to do more here than in the Amazon. Now 60% of our operations is in the U.S.-the richest country in the world. "
01:42
6 AM and the clinic opens its doors. The chief calls numbers one-by-one.
01:47
OT Stan Brock Open
01:53-01.55 OPEN
0.55
Of the 50 million legal US citizens living in America today, one in six of them are without health insurance and this number is increasing.
02.07 OT Stan Brock
"In the ranking of the World Health Organisation, the United States with their health care system ranks 37th, France is in the first. Why is the health care in the richest country of the world so pool? It is because a large number of people simply do not have access to medical services. "
02.32
The US spends more money on healthcare than any other country and yet it is the only industrialised nation without a system of general health insurance.
02.53 - 2.55 OPEN
02.55
Sandy is one of the 50 million without. She had private health insurance for years, but after three operations on her back and being diagnosed with leukaemia, her premium jumped from US$ 1,500 to US$10,000 a month- an exorbitant amount for a mother of three.
03.23
OT Sandy Flanigan (slow-read is very accurate translated)
"This problem affects blacks, whites, Asians… it affects the rich and the poor. It is not just a problem of poor population. I'm not poor. I belong to the typical American middle class.
In principle, any Americans could be affected by the crash. Even though we have health problems we cannot afford the health insurance. "
Ten years ago Sandy’s whole family was privately covered. In the meantime, her and her husband have lost every penny of their savings to medical expenses.
04.01 OT Sandy:
"We began to sell our things: our car, our furniture. In order to pay my chemotherapy, we also spent all of savings, which is reserved for the education of our children."
04.22
General health insurance has always been a highly contested political issue in America. During the Second World War few companies offered healthcare programmes to their employees.
1965 saw the establishment of general health insurance by President Johnson, but this was limited to seniors and those receiving welfare benefits.
At the beginning of the seventies President Nixon resisted lobbying by doctors and pharmaceuticals, and the vote in Congress went against a system of general insurance.
SOUND TRANSFER? 4.56?
04.56 -05.04 OPEN
05.04
Back in Macon County, the local school is turned into the hospital for two days ...
05.13 OT Frau
"They are not welfare recipients - but people who work earn too little to afford the insurance."
05.24 -05.26 OPEN
05.26
The biggest crowd is gathered in the gym. The dentists are hard at work. Patients wait for hours before they are seen, but this is a short period of time for those who have been in pain for several months.
05.41 OT Mann "
Before I cannot sleep because of the toothache. I am glad that they finally solve my problem. "
05.48
The doctors who volunteer for the organisation are responsible for all their own costs – they pay their petrol, accommodation and food – and give up their weekend to work for free. This dentist drove for ten hours to get here, but for him the journey is more than worthwhile.
06.04 OT Jim Jenkins, dentist
"These people are so incredibly grateful.
OPEN
34.17
"We get more of them than they of us."
06.22
The mobile hospital cannot offer operations, but it provides vitals services to those who could not otherwise afford them: mammograms, scans, dental treatment and new glasses!
06.41 OT man (off)
"I am a truck driver. I can hardly see anything on my left eye at night.
06.45
-- Question: (Ms)
Is that not dangerous?
06.47
OT man
of course. "
06.50 -06.52 OPEN
06.52
The fear of falling ill is a heavy burden for many.
Half of all private bankruptcies in the US are caused by extortionate hospital bills and doctors’ fees. Three quarters of these are in the early stage of an illness – the result of sharp hikes in insurance premiums on diagnosis.
Hospitals are obligated to treat emergency cases, but more often than not the patients cannot afford to pay the bill at the end of it all.
07.13 Mrs OT
"If you do not have insurance, then no hospital will accept you. This is very hard.
On the other hand I do not have risk accounts, which I do not afford. If you know that you cannot afford a doctor, then you do not lie. "
07.34
OT man
"The U.S. needs a health insurance for all citizens."
07.38
In order to pay the doctor’s fees, Sandy has taken a second job as a broker.
In the U.S., where the state fails to help, people have been seen to show incredible generosity.
A few months ago Sandy's friends who run a charity have donated 40,000 U.S. dollars, which helped two patients pay for their chemotherapy.
Sandy 08.04 OT
"The crisis of our health care system has nothing to do with money. Let me give you an example: We give billions of dollars for pets. There are people who have health insurance for their dog. But I do not have health insurance."
08.29-08.33 OPEN
08.33
The patients give their thanks to the organisation’s founder.
09.38
Over the weekend 549 people have been examined..
56 mammograms were performed, 222 pairs of glasses made and 416 teeth pulled.
08.52
It was the 537th stop of Remote Area Medical Organization. ....
09.01
Insert Final
Report / Camera: Katinka Nowotny
Editing: Fabian Wittmann