The Wicked Healthcare of the West

    Why hello fellow Wicked fans, and today we will be discussing the healthcare of Oz. One important key note to keep in mind is that I will be referring to the movie, broadway show, and Gregory Maguire’s book Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. Firstly, it is important to note that there are four main regions in the land of Oz that all have diverse geography, traditions, and communities. The northern part of the land is called Gillikin, which is an urban and progressive land where Shiz University is located. The eastern part is Munchkinland and consists of rural, agricultural, and a politically focused community (this is where Elphaba was born). The southern part is known as Quadling Country which is a marginalized and impoverished area that is known for its red swamps that are often exploited by the Wizard of Oz for resources. Lastly, the western area is known as Winkie Country which is a remote tribal community where Elphaba retreats to later in life. 

With such diverse communities, geographies, and political activity how does this impact the healthcare of Oz? With the Winkie and Quadling country being in mostly remote rural areas how does this impact their access to healthcare? If they are unable to access the best healthcare in Gillikin is there a sort of service where witches can fly over to provide spell healthcare. Additionally, would “normal” medicinal options for healthcare be overlooked by magical powers such as Glinda’s, and in that case would both be covered by their insurance? In my opinion I believe that they would have one insurance that everyone could buy that would be provided and governed by the Wizard of Oz. This is based on the fact that in the book many of the lands are being controlled by the Wizard besides Winkie country. I also believe that their health insurance would have to include a broad spectrum of coverage seeing as animals have rights in the civilization and also require medicine and vaccinations like humans. I would predict that the Wizard of Oz coming from Kansas would believe in vaccinating the community, and would force the Ozians to all receive their respective vaccinations in order to attend school and work. With the healthcare system being broad, I predict that the prior authorization time would be lengthy due to having to verify if that person really needed that coverage. One example of this would be the tinman trying to get oil covered by his insurance vs Dr. Dillamond who may need goat medicine instead. 

I also believe that Oz would be widely acceptable in their citizen choice to healthcare. For instance, I believe that Ozians would have the right to abortion and the right to refuse service from a witch/doctor if they did not believe in it. Additionally, I do not believe that the Ozians have a type of “FDA” to govern the safety, efficacy, and security of products. This is due to their broad geography and the Wizard of Oz trying to manipulate people into the “anti-animal” movement. This could give him the potential to give unsafe products to certain populations of Oz that could benefit his political goals. As we have had DEI problems within our world, I believe that they have had equally challenging discrimination challenges as well. For instance, the students of Shiz had to deal with their animal professors being mistreated and killed off during the school year while the Wizard of Oz started to shift the view on animals in society. Taking away the animal’s rights was a big step to create more segregation in the community, and thankfully Elphaba decided to take a stand and raise awareness of what the Wizard of Oz was trying to create. With that being said, I think that Glinda being a public facing witch would prioritize the professional ideals over her own personal ideals which have been validated in the book and movie. On the other hand, Elphaba decides to bypass the professional ideals and fully embraces her own personal views to make sure that animals keep their rights. 

Overall, I believe that the rural civilizations would have a disadvantage in healthcare and that citizens in the swamps of the south would have decreased access to education and hospitals. One important note is that Elphaba was able to find a group to campaign her beliefs with, and she was able to have an impactful change in how people viewed the Wizard of Oz and animals in Oz. This gives me faith that we can have our own version of Elphaba to help lead the University of Michigan (and the USA for that matter) into a better place to live.