Maestro

Sick Around the World
CORRESPONDENT
T.R. Reid

WRITTEN BY
Jon Palfreman and T.R. Reid

PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY
Jon Palfreman

ANNOUNCER: Tonight on FRONTLINE: American health care is in big trouble. It's the world's most expensive medical system, yet it leaves 47 million people without coverage and drives hundreds of thousands into bankruptcy each year.

Sen. BARACK OBAMA (IL),Democratic Presidential Candidate: I believe the problem is not that folks are trying to avoid getting health care. The problem is they can't afford it.

Sen. JOHN MCCAIN (AZ), Republican Presidential Candidate: We are approaching a perfect storm of problems that if not addressed by the next president, will cause our health care system to implode.

Sen. HILLARY CLINTON (NY), Democratic PresidentialCandidate: I am not running for president to put band-aids on our problems. I want to get to universal health care for every single American.

ANNOUNCER: In the middle of our national debate, Washington Post reporter T.R. Reid journeys to five countries--

T.R. REID, Correspondent: Have you ever paid a medical bill?

BRITISH WOMAN: No, never.

ANNOUNCER: --and finds out how other richfree-market democracies provide health care for all.

T.R. REID: How many people in Switzerland go bankrupt because of medical bills?

PASCAL COUCHEPIN, President, Swiss Confederation: Nobody. It doesn't happen. It would be a huge scandal if it happens.

ANNOUNCER: Tonight on FRONTLINE, what it's like to be Sick Around the World.

T.R. REID, Correspondent: That's the capitol of the richest,most powerful nation in history. But when it comes to providing health care for people, that great country, our country, is a fourth-rate power. The World Health Organization says the U.S. health care system rates 37th in the world in terms of quality and fairness. All the other rich countries do better than we do, and yet they spend a heck of a lot less. How do they do it? That's what this film isabout. We're going to go around the world to see what lessons we can learn to fix America's sick, sick health care system.

[voice-over] I've covered the world as a foreign correspondent, and right now, I'm writing a book about health care systems overseas. First stop on my tour is Great Britain, where our family lived for five years. Even though the U.K. is our closest European ally, itshealth care solution -- that is, the government-run National Health Service -- may seem too close to socialism for most Americans.

Still, we can learn something here. For about half of what we pay per person, the NHS covers everybody and has somewhat better health statistics-- longer life expectancy, lower infant mortality.

[on camera] Britain's National Health Service is dedicated to theproposition that you should never have to pay a medical bill. In the NHS, there's no insurance premium, no co-pay, no fee at all. The system covers everybody. And you know, when we lived here, my family got really good care from the NHS, although we often had to wait to see a doctor. And yet the newspapers here are full of NHS horror stories-- rationing, waiting lists, terrible mistakes. So I've come toLondon to see this NHS. Is it an answer for the U.S. or just some horrible socialist nanny state?

[voice-over] The Brits pay for health care out of tax revenue, so the government owns the hospitals, like this one, the Whittington Hospital in North London. The doctors who work here are salaried government employees. Does that sound like socialized medicine? Well, according to the hospital CEO,David Sloman, the Brits like it that way.

DAVID SLOMAN, CEO, Whittington Hospital: I think people are proud of it. Ninety percent of people who use the NHS think it's good or excellent, so people think very, very highly of it. People who don't use it don't think so well of it, actually.

T.R. REID: [on camera] Would you say most British people go their whole lives and never get a medical...