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WHY THIS SITE?
Read about the the hideous overcharges
that Cedars-Sinai Medical Center inflicted on me because I was uninsured.
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Jump to film
"Ask your doctor about Vioxx..." Please visit www.StopDrugAds.com and find an easy way to ask Congress to prohibit direct-to-consumer marketing of Rx drugs which does nothing to promote public health and does everything to keep the cost of drugs high and can be deadly to patients.
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- CBS 60 Minutes - "Hospitals Is the Price Right?" aired March 5, 2006
"Hospitals charge uninsured patients two, three, four or more times what an insurance company would pay
for the same treatment. And, when the uninsured can't pay, they often find themselves the target of collection agencies or in bankruptcy court."
- Watch this Web cast! www.umich.edu/healthmeeting/
Held at 22 Universities at the same time (on March 22, 2006),
this Citizen's Health Care Working Group Town Hall Meeting is perfect if you can't attend one of their regular town hall meetings. See what Americans want for our health care system. (we should have more town hall meetings like this where our desires are relayed to Congress. We'd have a much better country!)
- Peter Jennings Reporting: 'Breakdown -- America's Health Insurance Crisis'
Special to Air Thursday, Dec. 15, 2005 at 10 p.m.
- Today in the United States there are an estimated 46 million people without
health insurance. That's nearly one in six -- and the numbers continue to grow.
In the last documentary reported before his death, Peter Jennings reveals how the breakdown of the country's
health insurance system threatens almost every American and all areas of American life: family, business and community. Who's to blame? It's not as simple as you think.
"Peter Jennings
Reporting: Breakdown -- America's Health Insurance Crisis" will air Thursday, Dec. 15 at 10 p.m. EST on the ABC Television Network with a special introduction by ABC News anchor Charles Gibson.
"Over the course of Peter's long career at ABC News he made more than 60 prime-time documentaries, many of them covering public health issues. He had planned for this broadcast to be the
first of a series confronting the problems in the American health-care system -- a subject he believed was critical to all Americans," said Tom Yellin, executive producer of Peter Jennings
Reporting.
"Peter conducted most of the interviews for 'Breakdown' in the months before he learned he had lung cancer," Yellin continued. "The broadcast was written and edited
while he underwent treatment. Peter's voice was not strong enough to narrate the program, but, as you will see, it is still very much Peter Jennings Reporting."
"Peter Jennings
Reporting: Breakdown -- America's Health Insurance Crisis" is produced by Keith Summa. Tom Yellin is the executive producer of Peter Jennings Reporting.
ABC News http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=1323033
Dr. Elliot Fisher was interviewed for the ABC program
http://www.dartmouthatlas.org/press/jennings_interview.shtm
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AirTalk, KPCC-FM hosted a good radio show on Los Angeles' health care safety net,
the uninsured and the undersured. Aired December 9, 2005
Health Care For The Uninsured In Los Angeles
[ Listen ]
Larry Mantle travels to the Los Angeles Free Clinic in Hollywood
to moderate a discussion with a panel of expert guests on the
subject of providing health care for LA County's uninsured.
Larry interviews:
Dr. Jehni Robinson, Chief Medical Officer at The Los Angeles Free Clinic in Hollywood,
Dr. Robert K. Ross, President and Chief Executive Officer at The California Endowment,
John Wallace, Director of External and Government Relations for the LA County Department
of Health Services, and
Gerald Kominski, Professor of Health Services and Associate Director of the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.
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ABC News
HUNDREDS OF NON-PROFIT HOSPITALS NATIONWIDE ARE UNDER SCRUTINY, ACCUSED
OF BILLING UNINSURED PATIENTS AT THE HIGHEST RATES AND USING AGGRESSIVE COLLECTION PRACTICES TO GO AFTER THEM
"Primetime Live" Airs Thursday, December 16, 2004 at 10:00pm E.T.
It all began with two whistleblowers who first looked at the finances of their local non-profit hospital and realized that, at the same time it was charging uninsured
patients the highest rates and often using aggressive collection practices to collect the money, it made huge profits and had enormous cash reserves. They then
expanded their investigation nationwide, drawing the attention of a powerful lawyer who earned millions taking on the tobacco industry, reports Chris Cuomo. As a result,
hundreds of non-profit hospitals are now being accused in lawsuits of questionable practices, many of them forced to defend the level of charity services they provide
and justify their tax-exempt status. It's an epic legal battle that could have huge implications for the healthcare industry. "PRIMETIME LIVE" airs THURSDAY, DECEMBER
16 (10:00-11:00pm E.T.) on the ABC Television Network.
John Bagnato and Charles Rehberg of Albany, GA, explain to Cuomo why they decided
to examine the books of neighboring Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital. They say they discovered the hospital is flush with money -- millions in profits and a CEO with a
salary exceeding half-a-million dollars -- and charges uninsured patients incredibly high fees. Phoebe Putney CEO Joel Wernick says his hospital spent $50 million on
charity care last year and that its large profits are just the sign of a healthy organization. He tells Cuomo the hospital is not price gouging the uninsured, and
aggressively reaches out to the uninsured to let them know the hospital is willing to help them with their bills. "It's not a big secret in Albany, Georgia that Phoebe Putney
takes care of everybody who walks through the door," says Wernick.
"Primetime" also looks at St. Dominic Hospital in Jackson, MS, run by a nun whose
salary exceeds $500,000 per year (the hospital says she pockets none of the money -- her salary goes directly towards supporting her religious order). Cuomo talks to
uninsured patients who say the hospital sued them and even got a court order to tap into their life savings in order to collect payment.
Attorney Richard Scruggs made a fortune going after "Big Tobacco," and his team of litigators has sued 48 hospital systems, including 400 hospitals nationwide. The federal
lawsuits charge that non-profit hospitals, which are tax-exempt, should be doing more to help non-insured patients. The hospital industry says the lawsuits are misguided --
the hospitals have no legal obligation to provide more charity care than they already do ($25 billion in 2003).
DIANE SAWYER, CHRIS CUOMO, CYNTHIA McFADDEN and JOHN QUIÑONES are the anchors of "PRIMETIME LIVE." SHELLEY ROSS is the executive producer.
DATELINE - "Critical Condition" Tom Brokaw looks at America's current healthcare
system through the eyes of ordinary Americans who needed help, doctors and experts.
As NBC News follows the personal stories of people coping with healthcare crisis, two
themes emerge the enormous strides the country has made in healthcare and the
enormous burden the costs have become to hospitals, patients, employers and the
tax-payer. www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5624323
ABC NEWS - "Critical Condition"
(story no longer can be found on the ABC web site)
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SiCKO' opening June 29, 2007 The words "health care" and "comedy" aren't usually found
in the same sentence, but in Academy Award winning filmmaker Michael Moore's new movie 'SiCKO,' they go together hand in (rubber) glove.
Opening with profiles of several ordinary Americans whose lives have been disrupted,
shattered, and --in some cases-- ended by health care catastrophe, the film makes clear that the crisis doesn't only affect the 47 million uninsured citizens --millions of others who
dutifully pay their premiums often get strangled by bureaucratic red tape as well.
More about SICKO here.
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GRAHAM WALKER, medical student at Stanford created an animated
explanation of single payer . . .
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This entertaining single payer presentation targets a large audience that does not have a sophisticated understanding of health policy. It is simple and to-the-point
and should make most single payer naysayers think twice.
Watch it here www.grahamazon.com/sp/whatissinglepayer.php
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"BLOODLETTING: Life, Death, Healthcare"
A powerful documentary by award- winning independent filmmaker, Lorna Green.
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BLOODLETTING is a film contrasting two countries - - one very wealthy, the other extremely poor. It also contrasts their healthcare systems - - one that is expensive. profit-driven and difficult to access - - the other is universal that provides health care for all.
It's also a story of two Americans who find themselves caught in a downward spiral of health problems because they cannot afford health insurance despite the fact they work full time.
Filmmaker Lorna Green travels to Cuba with a delegation of healthcare professionals from the United States, in hopes of documenting an educational tour on the Cuban healthcare system. Does a
poor island nation succeed in providing healthcare to their citizens?
When she returns, she finds herself pulled from editing the documentary as she attempts to support her family, struggling
with their own healthcare. Her mother, a teacher, and her brother, a manufacturing
worker, though both hard at work, have no health insurance. A springtime asthma attack and a routine root canal finds each of them caught in a disturbing downward cycle in the hidden world of medicine for the uninsured in the U.S.
Turning the camera on her own family, Lorna reveals a deeply personal story about healthcare for uninsured Americans. Positing the U.S. and Cuban health care system, this
powerful documentary asks the question: what is the cost of continuing business as usual in the American healthcare system? With an international perspective from U.S. and Cuban
health professionals, startling facts about the U.S. uninsured, and a compelling personal story about an uninsured family, BLOODLETTING succeeds
in opening the issue of healthcare in a whole new way.
When the film is over, we realize how our
for-profit health care system makes America a very poor country indeed.
Film's Home page: http://www.blanket-party.com/blood/index.html
Review: http://www.blanket-party.com/blood/review.html
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