Film series presents health care inequality

By Andrea Kszystyniak

Published Sept. 4, 2008

The Columbia/Boone County Health Department hopes to promote meaningful health care discussions among Columbia residents with a new film series.

The department began a series of showings of the film "Unnatural Causes ... How Inequality Is Making Us Sick" on Wednesday evening.

Hosted by City of Columbia Human Rights Coordinator Nanette Ward, the series is designed to motivate discussion about how inequality affects health in day-to-day life and how residents can help stop it.

At the first showing, the room was buzzing with conversation from people of all ages, ethnicities and backgrounds.

Among those in attendance was Columbia resident Samantha Eiffert, an aspiring doctor who attended the event because of her interest in how health care is not equal in America or globally, she said.

"Unnatural Causes" is being shown as part of a national effort to spread knowledge about why some people get sicker more often and die earlier than others. The film is split up into seven segments, each presenting evidence that explains how inequality affects every area of human life. The film shows that the jobs people hold and the amount of wealth they have is more indicative of how long they live rather than their genes.

The symposium was started to promote understanding through dialogue, Ward said.

"One of the things that we've learned is that Columbia does afford a lot of different opportunities to experience diverse groups of people," she said. "There are people from all different walks of life, countries and backgrounds. What doesn't necessarily happen with people from those different backgrounds is coming together in conversation."

The story told by the film's narrator were described as "appalling" by attendee Joshua Ewing, who works for the Missouri Association of Social Welfare.

The mood of the room changed as the film progressed. The group's worries were revealed at a group discussion at the end of the film.

Senior Devonne Davis expressed her anxieties about health care at the close of the film.

"It's not like health care is cheap," she said. "I'm not insured right now, I'm just insured by the university, which isn't that much insurance."

Columbia resident Linda Cooperstock also discussed the relationship between economic status and health.

"If you don't have grocery stores in your vicinity or community, you don't have the ability to make that healthy choice to buy fruits and vegetables," she said. "There is definitely a relationship between poverty and obesity."

The discourse continued for about an hour, as youth and elderly alike discussed what they could do to promote health care equality.

"Nobody talks about this stuff, it's all 'Oh, you're going to be fine, you're going to have health care,'" Davis said as the program concluded. "Well, I might. But that other person won't."

The seven-part series will continue Wednesday Sept. 24. For more information and to find out how to attend, contact Nanette Ward at (573) 874-7487.