Uninsured in America [a personal account]

Another great piece Jonathan. Congratulations.

such a beautifully told story! great job as always!

so good Jonathan! so very good.

I relate to Ross' story. While I don't have a child and am just entering the so called "real world" (I just graduated college), I fear a similar future as that of your interview. I don't have insurance, am thousands in dollars of debt from school, and if anything were to happen to me medically I fear I would need to file bankruptcy or at least sell what little I own to help pay my medical bills. I am happy health care has become a top issue in this campaign. I only hope politicians are sincere about what they preach.

On a related side note: I appreciate your approach to telling this story. It didn't feel forced and I was drawn in from the very begining. In my eyes, you have impacted the way I think of the health care issue come 2008.

A. Todd

this isn't your typical news story. it flows like a movie with a real eye and ear for what looks and sounds great!

great job jonathan.

Well done. I was at the Vangaurd show and watched the clip with you in it which brought me to this pod. Well done. I'm currently 22 and still under my father's health care benefits... but it all expires next year in June... We'll see what happens then. still no phone call from the health insurance companies huh?
Best of luck, excited to see what comes next.
Carina

well i am stuck moveing from job to job and trying to pay for dental that i cant afford so i think there need to be big changes in the heath care industry

This piece is incredibly well done.

Nice work.

You sure know how to "one-man-band" as they say.

network caliber stuff. very compelling.

Good work, hope to see more of your work in the future.

Johnny...
You never cease to impress or inspire.
Hope you're having fun in NYC.

While universal health care sounds good, most people still don't know what that would mean. Anyone who has dealth with the government health care system for retirees of government employment knows that e4-ven pharmacists and indeed clerks can decide if you can get treatment..Here in Bexar County, TX, we pay taxes for a hospital that does treat people without health insurance. Their treatment is underwritten by our tax dollars. What's the matter with Florida?

Here high school graduates working at profit-driven health insurers decide if you get coverage, and are paid bonuses for denying it. What's the matter with Florida is the same thing that's the matter with the rest of America: lack of access to quality, reliable, affordable health insurance. The only clinic available to treat the uninsured here is over 60 miles away, has a waiting list of over 12,000 people, and can only provide basic primary care on a sliding scale that is far from free. They cannot help with necessities such as surgeries, colonoscopies, MRI's, prescriptions, cancer treatment, emergencies, or any specialized care at all.

This woman needs to see if her name is on the MIB list (Medical Information Bureau run by and for the profits of the life and health insurance industry). If her name is there, the option of purchasing reliable health coverage simply is not available to her at any price except possibly through an employer large enough to not care what her rating does to its group premiums, or through the government if she is a government employee, totally disabled, or has under-aged children. There are also lots of sham insurance companies willing to sell her scam coverage. Good job on the video production, but many who are truly disabled die while waiting to qualify, or are told they do not qualify for any protection at all. Her employer must have been paying extra for disability coverage?

Please let's all stop confusing health care with health insurance. They are two separate but connected entities. Also it was very funny how the doctor didn't mention that one in six Americans are already rationed to zero with waiting times until after its too late. That fact alone makes us first in both health care waiting times and rationing, as well as first by far in cost and inhumanity.

Thanks everyone for the comments.

Coggins and Spoon: Both of you seem to have experience dealing with the American health care system based on what you wrote. And the MIB list that was mentioned in Spoon's comment is an interesting resource.

Coggins: You're right to say some people might be confused by the concept of a "universal health care system."

Wikipedia has a good definition:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_health_care

Of the so-called 40 million uninsured, 20 million are either here illegally or are not U.S. Citizens. As to the idea that the government should pay for everyone's health care, consider the dismal failures of the Vereran's Administration (think Walter Reed Hospital), the Public Health Service (think health care for Native Americans on a reservation), or Tricare (think the insurance policy that all military dependents have). I question the legitimacy of a journalist who suggests that the same entity that has given us the worst health care in America should be rewarded by being responsible for the health care of all Americans. Remember, when the Gods want to punish us, they answer our prayers.

Cabotlodge let's talk about Walter Reed. Bush gave a Haliburton subsidiary a contract to take over private management of Walter Reed at higher costs. Another big VA medical contract went to a private company managed by Dan Quayle. The figures you cite about uninsured and illegal immigrants are mistaken and have no basis in fact, and if you think you and we are not paying for our uninsured now (only far more than we should be), you are sadly mistaken again. No one in the world provides less reliable coverage or more expensive access to health care than private, profit-driven American health insurance companies.

http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=4025709&affi...

Hi Cabot.


The question of whether or not America should adopt universal health care is one that has been asked by journalists, documentary filmmakers and Americans for a very long time. Michael Moore is just one recent example. I won't pretend to know the solution to fixing what critics call a "broken health care system," nor do I myself anywhere in my piece suggest I believe the American health care system is broken.

My only goal in this piece was to personalize an issue, and I believe I did that.

Best,

Jonathan

Oh... and Spoon,

Thanks for the link and all of your additional info. You've been a good resource on this message board.

You're welcome, and thank you for posting this video and doing such a great job with the production. I would like to add that "Universal Care Done Wrong" is mandating that anyone buy health insurance (Mitt, Arnold, Blagoivich, Hillary). That is unsustainable, unaffordable and immoral....basically more Corporate Welfare for Health Insurers rather than Health Care for Americans. I honestly believe anyone touting that as a "solution" is really trying to prove that the problem is unsolvable when the opposite is true. We must not allow ourselves to remain divided and conquered by powerful moneyed interests whose profits are dependent upon gouging our healthy and pulling the safety net out from under Americans when they become sick and are at their most vulnerable. Health insurers' goals are perverse and contrary to our ability to create an affordable, sustainable, high quality, transparent, moral health care system with real choices. "Universal Care Done Right" is uniting everyone into one protective pool instead of multiple, small, aptly-named "risk groups". In business terms we call it "eliminating excessively expensive, unnecessary, amoral middlemen and utilizing efficiencies of scale". If we were all in one protective pool, for the first time we would have the transparency we need to see who is paying how much for what, and total freedom of choice among independent providers. The only choice anyone ever wants or needs as far as coverage is concerned is to be protected if they need it, and that is the one choice profit-driven health insurers will never guarantee. Health insurers have a proven history of operating on 31% overhead while Medicare's is 2-3%. It's not often that cost effectiveness and basic human moraltiy are on the same side, but in the case of American health care they could be if we would stop admiring the naked emperor's robes. Another good example is the federal loan program. In both cases (college loans and Medicare) the feds have proven they can deliver a far more reliable product for far less money to American consumers. PNHP (Physicians for a National Health Program) provides reliable studies with statistics showing that we could cover everyone for everything and collectively save about $350 billion per year compared to what we're spending now. All our current system guarantees is that we will continue to pay more and get less until someone turns this boat around. Hopefully that will happen before it hits the falls.

Congrats on an great story! Only one name appears in the credits. Did you shoot and edit this piece by yourself or did you have help? Either way, top notch work. It's great to see this material on Current.

Hi Rosoner,

Thanks for the feedback. I did shoot and edit the piece myself. If you check back in a week, I should have another pod up on the site. I'm heading to a Florida orange grove this weekend to do a story on the drought and the damage it's doing to citrus crops.

Thanks 'gain.

Jonathan

nice job. another big issue in Florida is the economy...and tourism. hopefully the cost of travel doesn't continue to increase.

Meg,

Tourism definitely plays a big role here in Florida. If the economy is bad, usually one of the things American's sacrifice is vacation.

I actually just put up another pod related to the economy. It focuses on Florida's two-year drought and it's affect on orange crops in Florida. If you get a chance check it out:

http://current.com/items/88822257_orange_growers_feel_t...