KCTS 9 Connects: October 3, 2008
The Health Care Crisis
An estimated 47 million Americans are currently living without any health insurance.
In a cruel twist, many people become uninsured when they get sick, are forced to take time off from work, and are subsequently fired and lose their employer-based health care.
Meet the family of Tiffany Owens, a young mother who became sick with pulmonary hypertension. Tiffany missed so much time at work that she lost her job, lost her health insurance, and ultimately lost her life. Her three children, now being raised by their grandmother, are poignant voices in the cry for universal health coverage.
Vote 2008: Where Candidates Stand on Health Care
Overhauling our nation’s health care system has been a major issue in the 2008 election. So where do the presidential and gubernatorial candidates stand on the issue?
We outline the national plans put forward by Barack Obama and John McCain and show you the local ideas supported by Governor Chris Gregoire and challenger Dino Rossi.
Community Clinic
We take you inside Sea-Mar, a nonprofit community health care clinic in Seattle’s White Center neighborhood. See how local doctors, dentists and administrators are valiantly trying to patch holes in America’s health care safety net.
Roundtable: Making sense of the Health Insurance Crisis
Enrique Cerna talks with a panel of experts to make sense of the health insurance crisis and to explore creative new solutions.
Funding for KCTS 9 Connects provided by:
Comments
Posted by Jan Herley (not verified) on Mon, 10/06/2008 - 8:03pm
When my husband retired from the health care industry, we moved to North Central Washington. At the time we moved here there was NO individual health coverage available. The state apparently stepped in and subsequently Blue Shield offered coverage on an individual basis. It was very expensive and went up tremendously each year. The health coverage we were supposed to be provided for our retirement years by my husband's employer is no longer offered in our county (or in a number of other lower-cost counties where many retirees live). We had our property for many years so that we could pay it off before retiring, and planned on being covered by our promised medical when the time came. Despite all of our careful planning, the rug was pulled out from under us. This is not all that uncommon in this country. People through no fault of their own become uninsured, and the cost of providing your own coverage is exorbitant. I know that many Canadians we have talked to sometimes complain of their system -- but it is at least something, and they can pay privately for more expensive care -- cannot believe that Americans have NO coverage provided by the government, that such a rich country would let its citizens die for lack of care.
Posted by Garry Hurl (not verified) on Sun, 10/05/2008 - 10:03am
I live in Victoria, B.C. CANADA and can't understand how and why this debate has been ongoing for years. How can the American public in the $50K salary bracket afford tp pay for health care and then not be able to enjoy the rest of their lives.
I was surprised to see one question on your program that mentioned the Canadian program. DUH? Why hasn't this system been addopted in the US? Or is it that big business insurance companies couldn't gowge out their profits?
Wake up USA, your neighbours, yep, we're neighbours, to the north have one of the best systems on this planet and we're proud of it because it works.
Posted by Andrea Radich (not verified) on Sat, 10/04/2008 - 12:10am
We desperately need single-payer, not-for-profit healthcare for all in this country. The 9/11 attacks killed about 3,000 people. Approximately 18,000 people die in this country every year either because they can't afford, or can't qualify for health insurance. I can’t understand why we aren’t outraged over this.
Our businesses are struggling to provide health benefits for their employees. This puts them at a great disadvantage and contributes to outsourcing because they don’t have to pay for healthcare for outsourced employees. But then insurance companies are some of the largest companies and they make their profits by denying care. When we all figure that out it may finally change.
Posted by Guest (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 - 7:47pm
Another interesting KCYS Connects, but ultimately not helpful for a number of us so here is my two cents worth:
something that all POVs should keep in mind: the number of uninsured individuals may be seriously under-estimated. I have wondered about that that for some time, so I did a little poll myself among friends and acquaintances. Not one of the people I know who are without health insurance have any reason to think that they are included in any tally. They have all dropped their coverage because they could not pay for it but were never asked, either by the insurance company or by their family doctor, why they dropped out of the system. So are we counted as un-insured or as having changed insurance? Most likely neither, not having been counted as anything, being ignored completely.
These are all women, aged 22 to 59, who were covered sometime in the last 3-6 years but are not currently. Some of them have been dumped by their parents' coverage when they graduated from their 4-year college (but went on to grad school not corporate employment), some are older women who for whatever reason are no longer covered by their husbands' or partners' employee benefits, some are individuals who just plain couldn't pay the price. In all cases, they do not believe they are included in your statistics as un-insured, because nobody ever asked them if they were not or if not, why not.
So please add some % onto those affected - because who asks us???
Nobody.
Posted by Tom Villa-Lovoz (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 - 7:10pm
We need a federally sponsored and financed universal health care program in this country. We've just nationalized the financial industry, and if we can do that we can do the same for our health care industry
Posted by Ken (not verified) on Fri, 10/03/2008 - 7:04pm
My wife (a nurse) and I spent several years traveling around the world and one of the tings that we learned is that while the purpose of health care in most of the world is to provide health care, the main purpose of health care in the United States is to produce profits. Until we remove profit as the main focus of the health care system we will continue to pay exorbitant amounts for mediocre health care.
Ken Warner
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