BBC Show on U.S. Health Care Unavailable in USA

My sister Brigid Marlin lives in the UK and a few days ago was watching a BBC program on health care in the United States. Brigid is not a public affairs junkie so I was interested when she sent me an email reporting that the program was a shocking portrayal of the high cost and low coverage of U.S. medical care. This itself is not news but there are two things about the show that are worth an alert: (1) The BBC's effectiveness in describing the problems with U.S. health care, and (2) The fact that Americans can't watch it. My sister says:

They were discussing the problems that Obama faces in meeting his promise to provide health care for poor Americans. The program showed an English medical team that set out to provide medical services to poor people overseas. They ended up spending 60 percent of their time helping poor Americans, as they are the most needy! We were shown people getting up at 4 am and driving for hundreds of miles to be early in a huge queue for a doctor's help.

The program was produced by BBC's Panorama, the world's oldest television documentary program, begun in 1953.

The Panorama team managed to get inside a briefing that a large US insurance company was giving its staff, awarding them huge bonuses for finding loopholes in the clients' policies, so they didn't have to pay up! They boasted that one employee had saved the company $7 million by giving them the basis for refusing to pay out because of a tiny flaw in the way they had filled out the form. This story was contrasted with the company's television ads, where a kindly fatherly figure assures clients that they will be safe and looked after.

The BBC itself describes the program as follows:

Barack Obama takes over as U.S. President with a promise to dramatically change America and make it a fairer place. He is inheriting the worst economic crisis in almost a century, and a country so unequal that 23,000 people die every year because they cannot afford basic healthcare. To close the gap between rich and poor Obama will have to take on the might of the corporate world, which wields enormous influence in Washington. Can he change the world's most powerful country, and should he?

My sister's message to me goes on:

The drug companies are just as bad, Panorama shows. They have bumped up their prices so that Americans pay twice as much for their medicines as the same companies charge to other countries. It seems that the drug companies are uncontrollable because they wine and dine the senators so no votes are cast against their policies. The program showed the drug companies supporting senators with money for electioneering and their favourite charities. They are determined not to allow a comprehensive health care system in America!

Well, I attempted to watch the program myself and give you a link to it. It was broadcast on BBC One, 8:30 pm, January 19. It's a half-hour show produced by Jeremy Vine. My sister is not the only fan of the show. It is posted as a "pick" by blogger "Up Your Ego: Love Your Inner Geek". The blogger is trying to emulate the "brilliant" Watchification, Telegraph iPlayer Pick of the Day and the Radio Times Downloads index, and says:

My pick is the Panorama special on the USA health care system. I really enjoyed Michael Moore's Sicko but it was a little (ok a lot) one sided. A great piece of entertainment and a good piece of journalism when preaching to the choir BUT lacking slightly in balance. The BBC tries to look at both sides of the story. Watch it HERE.

Unfortunately, when I tried the link in several places, I got a message each time that the link won't work in the United States. So the best anyone can do, so far as I know, is to get a U.S.-formatted DVD sent over or persuade a PBS station to air the program in the United States. The program's e-mail address is: [e-mail]. I have written to them asking to be advised if the health care show has been or will be aired here. No answer to my question yet.

Comments

[Panorama Web Editor]

Hallo John, here's a link to the full version of Panorama: What Now Mr President?

You should be able to watch it online for at least the next month here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/front_page/newsid_7854000/7854496.stm

Or you can watch it in our blog here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/panorama/2009/01/what_now_mr_president_a_us_ver.html

If you have any problems, please email bbc.co.ukbbc.co.uk and put Obama in the subject heading.

[RightsGuy]

Panorama_Web_Editor, thank you for making "What Now, Mr. President?" available to the American people. The documentary is powerful and important. I hope that President Obama and his entire Cabinet and staff will view it.

To everyone reading this website:

**Please urge President Obama to watch the documentary and send him the video links above. You can leave your comments here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

**Please send the links and urge HHS Secretary Tom Daschle to watch the documentary: [e-mail]

**Send the links and urge your Senators and Representatives to watch the documentary. You'll find easy contact information here: http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml


The solution? NON-PROFIT, UNIVERSAL, SINGLE-PAYER HEALTHCARE. It works well in many, many countries around the world. Learn about The National Health Insurance Bill (HR 676) at: http://www.pnhp.org/publications/the_national_health_insurance_bill_hr_676.php

[John Tepper Marlin - Huffpost Blogger]

Panorama Web Editor - Thanks for letting us see the program. John

[RightsGuy]

Health insurance companies play a major role in our current healthcare crisis. These companies make huge profits and their CEOs make millions, while the rest of us face skyrocketing healthcare costs, impossible bureaucracy, and life-diminishing insurance denials.

HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANY PROFITS IN 2007:

1. UnitedHealth Group -- $ 4.654 BILLION. UnitedHealth Group owns Oxford, PacifiCare, IBA, AmeriChoice, Evercare, Ovations, MAMSI and Ingenix, a healthcare data company

2. WellPoint -- $ 3.345 BILLION. Wellpoint owns BLUES across the US, including Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Wisconsin, Empire HealthChoice Assurance, Healthy Alliance, and many others

3. Aetna Inc. -- $ 1.831 BILLION

4. CIGNA Corp -- $ 1.115 BILLION

5. Humana Inc. -- $ 834 million

6. Coventry Health Care -- $626 million. Coventry owns Altius, Carelink, Group Health Plan, HealthAmerica, OmniCare, WellPath, others

7. Health Net -- $ 194 million

The huge insurance company profits—BILLIONS EACH YEAR—could provide quality healthcare for millions of people, and to pay physicians adequately for their work.

We need to get the insurance companies OUT of healthcare . The only solution is a NON-PROFIT SINGLE-PAYER HEALTHCARE SYSTEM – and the single payer should not be an insurance company or a group of insurance companies.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: http://www.insurancecompanyrules.org/learn_more/the_roster/ and http://www.pnhp.org/

Learn about The National Health Insurance Bill (HR 676) at: http://www.pnhp.org/publications/the_national_health_insurance_bill_hr_676.php

[RightsGuy]

ANNUAL COMPENSATION OF HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANY EXECUTIVES (2006 and 2007 figures):

• Ronald A. Williams, Chair/ CEO, Aetna Inc., $23,045,834
• H. Edward Hanway, Chair/ CEO, Cigna Corp, $30.16 million
• David B. Snow, Jr, Chair/ CEO, Medco Health, $21.76 million
• Michael B. MCallister, CEO, Humana Inc, $20.06 million
• Stephen J. Hemsley, CEO, UnitedHealth Group, $13,164,529
• Angela F. Braly, President/ CEO, Wellpoint, $9,094,771
• Dale B. Wolf, CEO, Coventry Health Care, $20.86 million
• Jay M. Gellert, President/ CEO, Health Net, $16.65 million
• William C. Van Faasen, Chairman, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, $3 million plus $16.4 million in retirement benefits
• Charlie Baker, President/ CEO, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, $1.5 million
• James Roosevelt, Jr., CEO, Tufts Associated Health Plans, $1.3 million
• Raymond McCaskey, CEO, Health Care Service Corp (Blue Cross Blue Shield), $10.3 million
• Daniel P. McCartney, CEO, Healthcare Services Group, Inc, $ 1,061,513
• Daniel Loepp, CEO, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, $1,657,555
• Todd S. Farha, CEO, WellCare Health Plans, $5,270,825
• Michael F. Neidorff, CEO, Centene Corp, $8,750,751
• Daniel Loepp, CEO, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, $1,657,555
• Todd S. Farha, CEO, WellCare Health Plans, $5,270,825
• Michael F. Neidorff, CEO, Centene Corp, $8,750,751

The only way that we will have affordable, quality care is to get the insurance companies OUT of healthcare! We need a NON-PROFIT, SINGLE-PAYER healthcare system now!

[Panorama Web Editor]

Apologies for not responding sooner John.

Given the interest in Panorama: What Now, Mr President? outside of the UK, on this occassion we have decided to create a special web page that will give non-UK residents the opportunity to watch it.

As soon as the page is live, I'll post the url:
Here
On the Panorama blog - http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/panorama/
On Panorama's Twitter feed - https://twitter.com/BBCPanorama

[Clavis]

Great thanks. It's wonderful to learn, here in the Land of the Free, how much free speech gets silenced by the Rich and Powerful...

[Sutungpo]

Pay attention everybody. The show is NOT being censored. It's ONLY available as a download for the trial BBC torrent viewer, and the viewer is ONLY available to Brit tv license holders. The BBC is investigating alternative ways of funding itself, and this player represents some sort of trial.

The show is available as a torrent download. If you want to see it, just go to one of the torrent sites, like Piratebay or Torrentportal and enter the name of the show and the episode into the search engine. Then download using a torrent program like utorrent or the Opera web browser. Voila! Enjoy!

[Saidas]

What % of Americans (or anyone else) over the age of 30 have even heard of torrent let alone how to use it? Most people under 30 have little to no interest in health care. It might as well be made unavailable.

[Shaddup]

Another case of American media making itself less and less relevant. These guys are so busy selling commercials they haven't noticed nobody's watching.

[Chavez08]

Who's Leo Strauss? What does he have to do with this?

[Deborah]

Thanks for the you tube links. Every American should watch this.

The economic mess is going to make health insurance reform even harder.

[jmpurser]

Just watched it. Nothing we didn't already know. Our current system kills and torments the poor while the rich think it's a pretty good deal.

[Chavez08]

Most Americans already know this but the corporate-owned media is fighting to the death to keep this from becomming public dialogue.

Also, the rest of the industrialized world is openly discussing a global transition from Free Market Capitalism to Social Democracy, - but that also is selectively ignored by ABC, Fox, CNN,...

"Those who make peaceful reovolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable."

- Thomas Jefferson

[Konnie]

i will contact Bill Moyers........................i bet if enough of us do too, it will be shown as part of his FRONTLINE series on pbs...............get started ya'll.

[CamJam]

That is a very good idea. The last I recall Moyer's spoke on Health care was back in May 2008. I think ALL (whether in the US or not ) can read and view the video on it here:
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Nurses_Every_American_should_have_Cheneycare_0512.html

I wonder if my in-laws in the UK caught this show. But then again, after what we've been through, I think they already have a good idea. After watching the BBC Panorama report (on Youtube while one can) and watching Moyers video again... it really upsets me. I won't go into my families ordeal with the health care nightmares, but HEALTH CARE must be on the TOP of Obama's TO DO list. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.

BTW, if people wish to keep the youtube vids in case they disappear, a handy online way would be to use http://www.keepvid.com

[MarionWatts]

I live in the UK and I'm American. While I do wholeheartedly admit and want universal health care in my home country and I do recognise the vice in which the pharmaceutical companies hold medical care, I would say only this: The UK healthcare system generally sucks, and it's socialised. Treatment is dependent upon post code, basically with some treatments, especially cancer treatments, available in some areas and some not. Waiting lists are long, hospitals filthy, nurses not trained to the standards that they are trained to in the US and most of their medical personnel cannot speak English. Secondly, I would take whatever the BBC says with a large grain of unhealthy salt. They've been embroiled in a lot of credibility/public scam issues here in the UK of late. By the way, in order to own a television in the UK, we have to pay an annual liced of roughly the equivalent of $200, ALL of which goes to fund the BBC. Quality television? No. Mostly reality programming.

[randyjet]

I think that lack of proper cleaning is a British hallmark. I was at an RAF base, and I was outraged at the conditions of filth. Since I am a veteran, I know how the US military operates, and that base commander would be court martialed in the US.

Of course, I would take the British health care over US since I don't have insurance and cannot get it. So ANY health care is better than NONE as it is here.

[EgyptianMysterySchool]

You can see all three youtube viedos on the following page....

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/BBC_documentary_takes_on_Obamas_plans_0125.html

Our complicity in allowing our congress to bend us over for the pleasure of big pharma and insurance companies is shameful. I humbly recommend everyone read the book "The Prophet" by Khalil Gibran, specifically the section titled "Freedom" ....

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/5484/Gib14.htm

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/5484/Gibran.htm

...If you get the lesson you know that Americans will never be free from corporate tyranny until we totally remove the tyrant from our own hearts and minds. The gruond swell of this very organic grass roots movement highlighted by the election of Obama, must be used to remove the tyranny. Letter writing campaigns as well as political action against unbending local, state and national politicians is the only way to make changes.

If we wait for change to come from the top down then we are waiting for the tyrants to give up their tyranny - it'll never happen.

[mooph]

I'm sure it'll be gone soon. The link is 1 of 3 for this episode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD65UKgB6hU&feature=related

[chromodynamics]

I wonder if Mutual of Omaha helps Stand Brock in any way with his charity causes. After all, Stan was Marlin Perkin's sidekick on *Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom*.

[John Tepper Marlin - Huffpost Blogger]

The three YouTube links were posted here: http://drblues.wordpress.com/2009/01/25/what-now-mr-president/. I have listened to the first link and it's as powerful as my sister indicated.

[Blake Fleetwood - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks John

We need to hear this stuff over and over again to remind outselves how out of touch our healthcare system is with most other advanced countries.

We pay twice as much and rank 36 or 37 in national health....

Capitalism --- every doctor out for himself -- clearly doesn't work when it comes to health care.

Its OK for the rich, but everyone else is screwed.

It's a national disgrace that kills tens of thousand of people each year.

[Halter]

Thanks. National health care is needed for all-now. Health care should be as basic a service as police, fire, and education. The health insurance companies are parasites and need to be made redundent.

[derik]

I get several BBC channels over the internet. I assume I could have watched the show. Obviously, just flipping a channel on a legacy TV/Cable setup may be what you be using to watch TV. In fact, I get many channels from all over the world. If indeed censoring is happening, then the power of technology does seem to negate such censoring. I believe I do get some channels that appear to be magically unavailable though via some form censoring.

[posternaut]

Panorama is a great programme, full stop!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/panorama/hi/default.stm

Being in the Netherlands at the moment, I cannot see this episode either, unfortunately, as the situation is as peterg76 notes, that it's only available in the UK, and that goes for all "BBC iplayer" programmes, not that it's being blocked by the US somehow.

Also, the particular programme discussed here was not solely about US healthcare, but about whether Obama will actually be able to change "things" in the US, including the chokehold that corporate America has on the healthcare system.

Here is the programme info. from the BBC site:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00gvflg/Panorama_What_Now_Mr_President/

Panorama: What Now, Mr President?

Barack Obama takes over as US President with a promise to dramatically change America and make it a fairer place. He is inheriting the worst economic crisis in almost a century, and a country so unequal that 23,000 people die every year because they cannot afford basic healthcare.

To close the gap between rich and poor Obama will have to take on the might of the corporate world, which wields enormous influence in Washington. Can he change the world's most powerful country, and should he?

Broadcast on:
BBC One, 8:30pm Monday 19th January
Duration:
30 minutes
Available until:
8:59pm Tuesday 19th January
Categories:
Sign Zone, News, Factual
Credits:
Key talent
Jeremy Vine

[Albert Rull]

Real bummer about the whole international copyright thing with the Panorama video. It doesn't seem so surprising though, given today's media copyright situation (eg. Slacker Uprising free but for Americans, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report being for American viewing online, as well), but go figure.

While we're on the subject of health care, if you haven't seen Sick Around the World by PBS' Frontline yet, give it a shot:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/

T.R. Reid did that spot on worldwide implementations of universal health care. It doesn't purely focus on what America did wrong, though - rather, it focuses on what other nations (United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, Taiwan, Switzerland) did right and compares such to American policies in health care.

[Carrie-On]

And, all we have to do right now is copy the best system. We'd save millions, of dollars, and lives. What is most important? The Frontline program was right on, and timely. It put the US to shame.