SICK AROUND AMERICA-on PBS 3/31 & online | Arthritis Information

 

FRONTLINE INVESTIGATES THE FAILURES OF AMERICA’S HEALTH CARE SYSTEM

FRONTLINE Presents
SICK AROUND AMERICA
Tuesday, March 31, 2009, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS

www.pbs.org/frontline/sickaroundamerica

As the worsening economy leads to massive job losses—potentially forcing millions more Americans to go without health insurance—FRONTLINE travels the country examining the nation’s broken health care system and explores the need for a fundamental overhaul. Veteran FRONTLINE producer Jon Palfreman dissects the private insurance system, a system that not only fails to cover 46 million Americans but also leaves millions more underinsured and at risk of bankruptcy, in Sick Around America, airing Tuesday, March 31, 2009, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS (check local listings).

At its best, American health care can be very good. For Microsoft employee Mark Murray and his wife, Melinda, their employee health plan paid for eight years of fertility treatments and covered all the costs of a very complicated pregnancy. “If it wasn’t for our health insurance,” Murray says, “we wouldn’t have a baby boy right now.” The Murrays’ medical bills totaled between 0,000 and million, and their plan covered every penny.

But beyond large, high-wage employers like Microsoft, FRONTLINE learns that available, affordable, adequate insurance is becoming hard to find. Small businesses face a very bleak outlook for finding and keeping coverage. Coverage is becoming more expensive and less comprehensive, with high deductibles, co-pays and coverage limits. Georgetown University Professor Karen Pollitz explains that for many people, the current system is “like having an airbag in your car that’s made out of tissue paper: I’m so glad that it’s there, but if I ever get in a crash, it’s not going to protect me.”

Outside of employer-based health care plans, matters are even worse. Americans seeking insurance in the individual market must submit to “medical underwriting,” and if they have a pre-existing condition, they will likely be denied. Kaiser Permanente Chairman and CEO George Halverson says frankly: “I could not get insurance. I’ve had heart surgery, and so I am completely uninsurable in the private market. So it’s important that I keep my job.”

Across the United States, FRONTLINE finds people making life decisions based on health insurance, stuck in jobs because of so-called job lock. One such person is 23-year-old Twin Cities, Minn., resident Matt Johnson, who put his career dreams on hold to get a job at Menards home improvement store because its benefits package covers his ulcerative colitis. Americans even stay in bad marriages, says Professor Pollitz, “because they just can’t afford to divorce their health insurance.”

For those Americans who find health coverage in the private market, there’s no guarantee it will protect them. In 2007, Palm Desert, Calif., realtor Jennifer Thompson received a letter from Blue Cross accepting her for coverage that read: “Congratulations! You have been approved for coverage with Blue Cross of California. ... The immediate value of your coverage is peace of mind.” But then Thompson discovered she had a cancer that required surgery, and three days after leaving the hospital, she received a letter from Blue Cross saying that her insurance was “rescinded,” leaving her uninsured and owing more than 0,000 in medical bills. Blue Cross cited Thompson’s previous history of cancer and results from a recent doctor’s visit as the reasons for the rescission. “Our system is not working,” says Professor Pollitz. “It’s designed to cut out on you right when you need it the most.” When questioned about Thompson’s case, Sam Nussbaum, chief medical officer of WellPoint, which owns Blue Cross of California, told FRONTLINE that because of legal considerations, “I can’t speak to that circumstance ... but no one likes to see a situation like this. People are buying health security.”

In the past, some states required insurance companies to cover everyone but found that many people waited to buy insurance until they fell ill, causing “adverse selection,” or a higher ratio of unhealthy to healthy people in the insurance pool. As a result, insurance companies stopped doing business in those states. Today, only five states—New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Maine and Vermont—guarantee everyone insurance, a “privilege” reflected in premiums. “If we look at the average premium of those states,” says WellPoint’s Nussbaum, “that premium is three times higher on average—maybe 0 to 0 versus a [state] where the insurance market has allowed medical underwriting.”

For some Americans, life becomes a quest to find and keep health insurance. In 1994, Nikki White, a Bristol, Tenn., native with dreams of becoming a doctor, was diagnosed with lupus, a serious but treatable autoimmune disorder. Too ill to work, she lost her health insurance for several years, but then received coverage from the state’s Medicaid program. Soon, budget cuts made her ineligible for the state program. A few months later, White was rushed to the ER with severe lupus complications and racked up nearly million in medical bills. She finally secured insurance under the government HIPPA law, but her condition was too advanced, and in 2006, at the age of 32, she died. White’s primary care physician, Amylyn Crawford, tells FRONTLINE: “Nikki didn’t die from lupus. Nikki died secondary to the complications of a failing health care system.”

Around the world, other developed democracies offer universal health care, requiring insurance companies to cover everyone. People are mandated to buy it; insurance for the poor is subsidized; and governments control prices by setting the cost of everything from doctors’ salaries and hospital rooms to drugs and MRIs. But efforts to implement similar policies in the U.S. have proven unsuccessful. In 2006, Massachusetts implemented reforms mandating everyone be covered by health insurance, but there are still problems of affordability. FRONTLINE profiles the Abramses, a Massachusetts family of four earning ,000 annually, who found that although they were too prosperous to receive a health care subsidy, they could not afford to buy a health care insurance policy at around ,000 a year. “What we’re finding out in Massachusetts,” says veteran insurance industry executive and consultant Robert Laszewski, “you can mandate that people have health insurance, but if it costs more than they can afford, it doesn’t matter.”

As President Obama launches his plan for reforming health care, Kaiser Family Foundation President Drew Altman tells FRONTLINE: ’This is the first big opportunity for health reform since ... [the] early 1990s. And a question is again, pointedly, whether we will blow the opportunity again this time or [whether] we will actually get it all done or get something significant done.” But consultant Laszewski wonders if Americans have the will to make it happen. “Every doctor I meet says he’s underpaid. I’ve yet to meet a hospital executive who thinks he or she can operate on less. I have yet to meet a patient who is willing to sacrifice care. So we have this .2 trillion system, and I haven’t met anybody in any of the stakeholders that’s willing to take less. And until we’re willing to have that conversation, we’re just sort of nibbling around the edges.”

Sick Around America is a FRONTLINE co-production with Palfreman Film Group. The writer, producer and director is Jon Palfreman. FRONTLINE is produced by WGBH Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers. Major funding for FRONTLINE is provided by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Additional series funding is provided by the Park Foundation. Additional funding for Sick Around America is provided by The Colorado Health Foundation, The Commonwealth Fund and The Colorado Trust. FRONTLINE is closed-captioned for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers and described for people who are blind or visually impaired by the Media Access Group at WGBH. FRONTLINE is a registered trademark of WGBH Educational Foundation. The senior producer is Raney Aronson. The executive producer of special projects is Michael Sullivan. The executive producer of FRONTLINE is David Fanning.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundamerica/




I set the DVR for this.. thanks.When is the show for showing the many success of the American Health Care System ? Oh Wait it's PBS  [QUOTE=6t5frlane]When is the show for showing the many success of the American Health Care System ? Oh Wait it's PBS [/QUOTE]


Paragraph two of above PBS article:

At its best, American health care can be very good. For Microsoft employee Mark Murray and his wife, Melinda, their employee health plan paid for eight years of fertility treatments and covered all the costs of a very complicated pregnancy. “If it wasn’t for our health insurance,” Murray says, “we wouldn’t have a baby boy right now.” The Murrays’ medical bills totaled between 0,000 and million, and their plan covered every penny.

But beyond large, high-wage employers like Microsoft, FRONTLINE learns that available, affordable, adequate insurance is becoming hard to find.



THIS PROGRAM WILL ALSO BE VIEWABLE ONLINE.


Joie2009-03-30 08:26:21 [QUOTE=Joie]

At its best, American health care can be very good. For Microsoft employee Mark Murray and his wife, Melinda, their employee health plan paid for eight years of fertility treatments and covered all the costs of a very complicated pregnancy. “If it wasn’t for our health insurance,” Murray says, “we wouldn’t have a baby boy right now.” The Murrays’ medical bills totaled between 0,000 and million, and their plan covered every penny.

[/QUOTE]

Unreal. This is part of the reason healthcare costs is so high. What a couple of self-centered douchebags.
Joy - [QUOTE=Pip!]Joy - [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=6t5frlane]When is the show for showing the many success of the American Health Care System ? Oh Wait it's PBS [/QUOTE] Babs - What's interesting about Frontline's other program "Sick Around the World" is that though the five countries discussed all have universal health care, they have different ways of financing and delivering health care -- covering all their citizens and spending less for health care than the US (which leaves millions without access).

The smart card Pip is referring to is the card all Taiwanese use for medical care.  The medical provider swipes the card and electronically bills government for payment, saving quite a bit in administration costs, money then available for medical care.

The journalist narrating the program is an entertaining guy, so its not a dull documentary, but an insightful program on how other democratic, capitalist countries provide health care.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/


 
[QUOTE=Hillhoney][QUOTE=6t5frlane]When is the show for showing the many success of the American Health Care System ? Oh Wait it's PBS [/QUOTE] [/QUOTE]

Hill -

[QUOTE=Pip!]Babs - [/QUOTE] babs102009-03-30 12:47:40Yes, I saved your post about that too - the one where you say you don't want less so others can be covered.  Stunned me that you were so blatent. are you taking twist lessons from gimpy?? 

Hey, I don't want less either...We have worked very long and hard to get to where we are today.  My family has made sacrifices to have the kind of insurance coverage that we have now.......

 

Babs - [QUOTE=Lynn49]

Hey, I don't want less either...We have worked very long and hard to get to where we are today.  My family has made sacrifices to have the kind of insurance coverage that we have now.......

 

[/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Pip!][QUOTE=Lynn49]

Hey, I don't want less either...We have worked very long and hard to get to where we are today.  My family has made sacrifices to have the kind of insurance coverage that we have now.......

 

[/QUOTE] [/QUOTE] I actually think about is as the basic tenet of Christianity - what you do for the least of my brothers...I know, crazy belief nowadays.  That whole "greed is good/Wall Street" supercedes that outdated belief. I think entitlement is highly overrated. While I would like to see some type of "universal health care" in my lifetime, I find little health "care" in any system in the US. Instead what I see, and yes, I do realize my perception is just that-mine, a great deal of ill care.

I realized many years ago that it was going to be up to me to provide for myself in both health and the absence of health and that to expect any entitlement was not only foolish, but impractical.

I pay my own way, but cannot pay for anyone else. If that makes me less than an upholder of the Christian tenet quoted above, so be it.

And no, I am not a moron. That descriptor seems to be used for anyone who is not in agreement and in its overuse on this discussion board has begun to take on the form of a compliment.

Now, having left myself open to an attack, I will withdrawn and bid everyone a good day.
 
“Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today.  Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime”—Author unknown

If any of you had seen the above episodes, you'd realize that it will eventually cost us LESS in TAXES than we spend now - thereby making healthcare affordable to more people. 

Lynn - that is silly, really silly.  What are sick people supposed to do, FISH for their meds?  Just how do you advocate teaching fishing in 'I'm going bankrupt because of medical expenses' model?

Pip

I'd suggest you read up on analogies..........I suggest you read up on using analogies that work as a proper descriptor.  Spell it out for me - how do we teach people to 'fish' in this model?  [QUOTE=Pip!]I actually think about is as the basic tenet of Christianity - what you do for the least of my brothers...I know, crazy belief nowadays.  That whole "greed is good/Wall Street" supercedes that outdated belief. Jas - Pip!2009-03-30 16:55:56I have no doubt that my taxes will increase to support this. I've heard all the bullsh*t money-savings claims here in Illinois, and our taxes (property, sales, and now income) keep going UP to pay for all the entitlements.

Screw AIG - I wonder what Jesus would have thought of Illinois government.  Well, at least you can put up an arguement in favor of 'keep it for myself'. 

Watch out your great insurance can be gone fast, ours was.
We had awesome insurance and then the company my husband works for was bought out by a large nation wide company. In one months time our 10 dollar copay went to a 25% copay, and alot of my tests are not even covered. My last office visit, labs and xrays cost me 5.
Under our old insurance it would have all been covered after the .
One of my dearest friends is in the hospital right now. She had an aneurysm. She has been in for 3 weeks now. Thank God it looks like she will recover, but I cannot imagine what the hospital and therapy bill will be. She is lucky she has good insurance and it will only cost her family their 0 copay. It would bankrupt us.
We have busted our butts all of our lives to have a nice house, cars and vacations. It could all be gone in an instant just because some CEO wants to save a little money!
And no the company is not even close to having money problems. Last year they needed to get rid of profits so they flew all managers (my dh included) to Vegas for 5 days.
My dh is looking for a new job with better insurance but he is in a somewhat specialized field so not alot of openings.
[QUOTE=Pip!]Babs - [/QUOTE] Babs - you are soooo cute!  You were the fat unpopular kid in HS, weren't you, whose only job was to say 'me too!'? Babs - how bad is your fog?  Look at the first post.  How far back until you started.  Like on every thread. [QUOTE=Pip!]Babs - how bad is your fog?  Look at the first post.  How far back until you started.  Like on every thread. [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Pip!]Babs - you are soooo cute!  You were the fat unpopular kid in HS, weren't you, whose only job was to say 'me too!'? [/QUOTE]