Friday, September 14, 2007

U.S. Health Care System - A Conservative Journalist’s Report on American Health Care Airs Tonight

John Stossel, 1969 Princeton graduate and one of the few conservatives in the American media will report tonight on the pros and cons of the American health care system, on 20/20. The program will air at 10 PM EST on 20/20. It is called "Whose Body is It - Anyway?"

I’m personally aware he has spoken to Michael Moore, the controversial documentary filmmaker, Dr. Edward Hill, former AMA president, Regina Herzlinger, professor of business at Harvard Business School, Grace Marie Turner, founder and president of the Galen Institute, and John Goodman, economist and head of the National Center for Policy Analysis. No doubt, he has spoken to others as well.

Stossel will compare the U.S. system and others around the world, and will look at U.S. innovations. Included will be a segment is a view of health care in Cuba, featuring filmmaker Michael Moore, Miami-based Cuban activist Jose Carro and George Utset, who runs an anti-Castro Web site. Also Stossel will interview Harvard Business School professor Regina Her linger; and Canadian physician David Gratzer, author of “The Cure: How Capitalism Can Save American Health Care.”

The U.S. is in the midst of a national political debate on health reform. Unaffordable costs and 47 million uninsured spark the debate. The debate centers around these questions: Who shall dominate the system – the government or market forces? What is the proper role of each? How do we cover the uninsured? How do we bring down costs? There are signs things are changing; health premium inflation dropped from 8.0% to 6.1% last year, members in high deductible plans rose 30%., the number of uninsured rose by 2 million, and a half a dozen states have universal coverage plans in the works.

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