Episode Information
WWL: Healthcare in America
Aired:
03/31/2009
As the worsening economy leads to massive job losses, the number of people without insurance is rising.
Coming up, Where We Live, we'll talk to FRONTLINE producer Jon Palfreman about his new documentary Sick Around America which you can see tonight at 9pm on CPTV. He traveled the country examining the nation's broken healthcare system and exploring the need for fundamental overhaul.
The documentary introduces us to people who’ve fallen through the cracks of the system – facing massive bills for illness that they thought was covered.
Join the conversation – what will it take to fix the health care system?
Links for this Episode:
From Nathan Huttner @ Twitter
nathanhuttner@wherewelive not only is health care a broken market -- it breaks others, including the labor market, reducing labor mobility.
Listener Email from Bernard
I would like to suggest that this discussion raises a question of
morality:
Just as we have decided that it is immoral to own slaves, or prohibit one sex from voting, so to I believe we are learning that in is immoral to make a PROFIT from insuring human health. The inherent conflict of interest is killing people.
Bernard
Hamden CT
HR676 Single-Payer Health Insurance
The major media outlets seem to unanimously ignore the option of single-payer national health insurance. There is a bill in congress right now, HR-676, introduced by Rep. John Conyers, which would offer comprehensive health insurance for ALL Americans. Despite the propaganda promoted by insurance giants, Single-Payer is not state-run healthcare or "socialized" medicine. It is a National Health Insurance plan that still allows patients to pick and choose their doctors, hospitals, etc. Dozens of representitives have already co-sponsored this bill, but none from CT.
Just to be clear, many
Just to be clear, many state-run, "socialized" healthcare programs also allow patients to pick and choose their doctors, hospitals, etc.