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Brooke Weber

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This Little Girl's Disease Is Treatable. It's Just Too Bad She Lives In America.

In a perfect world, Nia (the star of this clip) wouldn't have to go to the emergency room for this. But when you don't have insurance, you don't have much of a choice.

At 1:01, we learn a really jarring statistic about African-Americans' health. After that, Nia's dad breaks down the reasons why Americans are having these issues and points out what seems to be the obvious solution.


This clip comes from a storytelling project developed by the creators of the award-winning documentary "The Waiting Room," which follows patients and staff on a busy night in the emergency room of a public hospital in Oakland, California. Even with the ACA, there are still a lot of Americans who go without health coverage — and even for those of us who have it, it's not always adequate. (I mean, if some form of universal health care is good enough for France, Israel, Taiwan, Germany, Indonesia, Italy, Norway, Mexico, and Canada*, it sure seems good enough for us.) For more compelling stories, visit the storytelling project here. The documentary itself is available on Netflix, and you can look for live screenings here. Follow "The Waiting Room" on Facebook and Twitter to stay in the loop.

*This list is nowhere near exhaustive. Click here for a full list of countries that provide universal health coverage.