Legislation Guides & 2009 Summer Coverage
PolitiFact: Health Care Reform: A Simple Explanation
Health care legislation is a work in progress this summer, as legislation is being debated and contested at town hall assemblies across the country. This piece does a good job of explaining what is actually in the bills and which details are causing the most debate. (August 13, 2009)
Factcheck.org: Seven Falsehoods About Health Care
This article provides a rundown of the seven biggest lies that Factcheck has encountered in the past few weeks, along with some research and analysis thrown in. (August 14, 2009)
NewsHour: Rx for Reform
The Online NewsHour's comprehensive coverage of the health care reform debate, as well as a helpful guide to terminology and key players.
Journalism.org: Anger and Rancor Fuel Cable's Health Care Coverage
The town hall debates have generated what Journalism.org says was the "biggest single week of health care coverage so far this year." Learn more about the coverage at the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism website. (August 16, 2009)
For Fun
The Back of the Napkin blog: American health care on 4 napkins!
Blogger Digital Roam encapsulates the health care reform debate on the backs of napkins in this clever blog series. (August 15, 2009)
KQED: You Decide: Should the United States Adopt a Single-Payer, Universal Health Care Plan?
If you think you know where you stand on the issue of health care, think again. This online devil's advocate quiz created by the interactive division of KQED walks you through the pros and cons of adopting a single-payer universal health care plan, challenging your point of view every step of the way.
Uninsured and Underinsured
Online NewsHour: Health Beat: The Uninsured in America
This in-depth exploration of the uninsured in America includes recent reports on why those in need of care are being left behind; resources including an interactive map of the uninsured by state and a timeline on health insurance in the United States; and articles on how the problem affects businesses and what state and local governments are doing about it.
Now: Science and Health: America's Health in Perspective
This webpage from the PBS series Now explores a controversial plan in Maine and offers resources to find out if your state is working on new healthcare proposals. (February 24, 2006)
The Washington Post: Rising Health Costs Cut into Wages
This article illustrates how the escalating cost of providing health care benefits for employees is eroding the living standards of American workers. Employers are paying more for health care and other benefits — up to 30.2 percent of employers' costs, up from 27.4 percent in 2000 — ultimately leaving less money for wage increases. (March 24, 2008)
USA Today: Individual Health Policies Leave Many Behind
In this article, health reporter Julie Appleby considers two different approaches to reshaping the market for the nearly 18 million Americans who must buy their own insurance, including one that would loosen regulations and another that would increase government oversight. (July 16, 2008)
Association of Health Care Journalists: Talking Health: Covering the Underinsured
This webcast series presented by the Association of Health Care Journalists, the Commonwealth Fund and the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism explores the growing problem of the underinsured — those who have insurance but are still at risk for substantial out-of-pocket expenses. Additional resources include links to the presidential candidates' statements on the underinsured and research on the number of underinsured American adults.
Polls and Opinions
NPR: Americans Cutting Back on Medical Care, Poll Finds
Part of the NPR series, Feeling the Economic Pinch, this section explores growing health care costs and the results of a poll conducted in the swing states of Florida and Ohio for NPR by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health. Listen to the corresponding radio piece and read the full results of the poll, in which one in four people — including middle-class people with jobs and health insurance — say they're having trouble paying their medical bills. (July 23, 2008)
CATO Institute: Voters Send Mixed Messages on Health Care
CATO Institute senior fellow Michael D. Tanner points out that although polls show that voters consider health care reform one of the top three issues of this presidential election, the polls also reveal that Americans are confused about exactly how reforms should look. This column originally appeared in The Orange County Register. (June 13, 2008)
Fortune Magazine: Why McCain Has the Best Health-Care Plan
Editor-at-large Sean Tully argues in favor of presidentical candidate John McCain's health care plan, which aims to "junk" the employer-based health care system that has been in place since World War II and to put health care insurance on the free market for Americans to purchase independently based on their health care needs and stage of life. (March 11, 2008)
The New York Times: Opinion: Health Care Excuses
New York Times op-ed columnist Paul Krugman catalogs and then debunks the most commonly heard "apologies" for American health care, including the ideas that the uninsured have adequate access to healthcare through emergency rooms, that bad eating habits — not the system — are to blame for our health care woes, that we're paying more for health care because of advances in medicine and finally, that socialized medicine is a threat to high-quality care. (November 11, 2007.)
Slate.com: Fixing It: Health Care Policy
In this article, part of Slate's 10-part series offering detailed policy prescriptions for the next president, Ezra Klein, associate editor of the liberal magazine The American Prospect, tackles health care reform. Klein advises, "Do it first, don't write a bill, and let someone else take the credit." (April 3, 2008)
History and Background
The New York Times: History of Health Care Timeline
This comprehensive timeline includes nearly 100 years of milestones, legislation and news stories related to health care in America.
The New York Times Magazine: Now Can We Talk About Health Care?
In this 2004 essay, Hillary Rodham Clinton writes in-depth about how 21st-century problems, like genetic mapping, an aging population and globalization, are combining with old problems, like skyrocketing costs and a growing number of uninsured, to overwhelm the American health care system. In addition to chronicling the evolution of the modern American health care system, Clinton lays out possible technology, patient and provider-driven solutions to curb rising costs, ensure greater coverage for the uninsured and underinsured and prepare our healthcare system for the future. (April 18, 2004)
Time: Playing the HMO Game
In June 2001, the health maintenance organization (HMO), Kaiser Permanente announced that it would not cover the cost of Viagra, the $10 erection pill, for its 9 million members and touched off a debate on managed care. using this as a jumping-off point, this article traces the history of HMOs and explores how managed care shifted the power to make treatment decisions from physicians to bureaucratic gatekeepers paid to question the necessity of nearly every medical procedure or referral. (June 24, 2001)
YouTube.com: "Harry and Louise"
These legendary 1994 TV spots sponsored by the Coalition for Health Insurance Choices, an insurance company lobby, featured a middle-class married couple lamenting the complexity of the Clinton health care plan. In a September 30, 1994 New York Times article, reporter Robin Toner wrote that "'Harry and Louise' symbolized everything that went wrong with the great health care struggle of 1994: a powerful advertising campaign, financed by the insurance industry, that played on people's fears and helped derail the process."
EH.Net: Health Insurance in the United States
This academic article by Melissa Thomasson, associate professor of economics at Miami University in Ohio, describes the development of the us health insurance system and its growth in the 20th century, beginning from the rising price of medical care in the 1920s and 1930s and the birth of Blue Cross and Blue Shield to the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s. EH.Net is supported by the Economic History Association and other affiliated organizations including the Business History Conference, the Cliometric Society, the Economic History Society and the History of Economics Society.
International Angle
Reuters: U.S. Health Care Comes Up Short in Survey of 7 Nations
This article looks at a 2007 report published in the journal Health Affairs by the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation that supports research on health systems. The report finds that Americans spend double what people in other industrialized countries do on health care, yet they have more trouble seeing doctors, are the victims of more errors and go without treatment more often. (November 1, 2007)
Frontline: Sick Around the World
The companion site for the Frontline series that looks at the different ways in which five capitalist democracies, including Great Britain, Japan, Germany, Taiwan and Switzerland, have tackled the issue of health care for their citizens. The site includes a link to the broadcast, a digest of each country's health care system and interviews with key stakeholders, including politicians, health care experts and economists.
NPR.org: Health Care for All
This special report compares the health care realities for patients with similar conditions in the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Switzerland. NPR health reporter Julie Rovner highlights the Swiss health care system, which underwent a major overhaul in 1994 including guaranteeing health care for all and preventing health insurance companies from making a profit. The new model incorporates aspects of reforms being advocated by both Republicans and Democrats in the United States. (July 2008)
The Wall Street Journal: American Cancer Care Beats the Rest
In this op-ed from the opinion pages of The Wall Street Journal, David Gratzer, a physician and senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, writes about a major international study to be published in the August 2008 issue of The Lancet that shows that us medicine bests the cancer treatment available to people in 30 other countries. (July 22, 2008)
The New York Times: While the United States Spends Heavily on Health Care, a Study Faults the Quality
This article from the Business section of The New York Times offers an analysis of a July 2008 study released by the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit research group, that highlights the stark contrast between what the United States spends on its health system and the quality of care it delivers, especially when compared with many other industrialized nations. (July 17, 2008)
Sicko: The Official Movie Website
This website for the controversial 2007 Michael Moore film that took aim at the U.S. health care system includes news on single-payer health care, patient stories, a list the insurance industry's contributions to the 2008 presidential candidates, facts and figures on Canadian medicine, and plenty of resources for getting involved on a national and local level.
Research/Policy
Cover the Uninsured
The website of this project of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation includes fact sheets, up-to-date reports on pending legislation and tools for organizing.
A Roadmap to Health Insurance for All: Principles for Reform
This report from the nonpartisan Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation working toward a high-performance health care system, explores the current problems with America's health care system, and the different options on the table for health care reform and sets the bar for what its researchers would consider a high- performing system. (October 18, 2007)
Why Not the Best? Results from the National Scorecard on us Health System Performance, 2008
Read the 2008 National Scorecard on us Health System Performance, a comprehensive measurement of health care outcomes, quality, access, efficiency, and equity in the United States prepared for the Commonwealth Fund as an update to its 2006 Scorecard.
National Coalition on Health Care: Building a Better Health Care System
Read the health care reform recommendations outlined in this 2004 report from the nonprofit, nonpartisan alliance of America's largest businesses, unions, health care providers, associations of religious congregations, pension and health funds, insurers and patient and consumer advocates.
Health Information Technology
This report from the nonprofit RAND Corporation, which has been cited by Democratic presidential candidate Barak Obama, outlines the estimated the potential costs and benefits of widespread adoption of Health Information Technology (HIT), including efficiency savings that could reach $77 billion, increased patient safety and improved preventive care.
The Heritage Foundation: Health Care Reform
The website of this conservative think tank offers research reports and articles that support its position that the United States needs to move from the current "bureaucracy-driven, heavily regulated third-party payment system" of health care to "a new patient-centered system of consumer choice and real free-market competition."
Hoover Institution
The health care-focused section of the website of the Stanford University-based public policy research center outlines its views on health care policy and politics vis-á-vis the 2008 presidential election debate over health care reform and includes links to articles, books and op-eds on the topic by Hoover Institution fellows.
Kaiser Family Foundation
Read the October 2007 Kaiser Family Foundation report "The Uninsured: A Primer - Key Facts About Americans Without Health Insurance."
Center for Studying Health System Change
Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, this nonpartisan research group provides background investigation and briefings on health policy issues, including insurance coverage and health care costs.
U.S. Census Bureau
Find the most recent reports, briefs and data on health insurance in the United States, definitions of the types of health insurance coverage available and links to historical health insurance tables from 1994 to 2006.
National Coalition on Healthcare
The website of this nonpartisan, nonprofit organization is a particularly good source for information on the economic aspects of health insurance.
Kaiser Family Foundation
In addition to dozens of research reports on health-related topics, the Kaiser Family Foundation provides this handy way to compare health care proposals offered by 2008 presidential candidates.
Commonwealth Fund
The Commonwealth Fund is a private foundation that aims to promote a high-performing health care system that achieves better access, improved quality and greater efficiency, particularly for society's most vulnerable, including low-income people, the uninsured, minority Americans, young children and elderly adults.
Advocacy
1000 Voices, A National Archive
The 1000 Voices National Archive, a project of Creative Counsel and the Fledgling Fund, is a curated collection of video stories created by filmmakers across the country. The website features vignettes from Critical Condition, as well as a links to facilitation guides, resources for community leaders, and factsheets from research and advocacy organizations.
American Association of Retired Persons
The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) is the leading nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization for people aged 50 and older in the United States. It is also one of the four groups sponsoring the initiative "Divided We Fall," a campaign engaging the American people, businesses, nonprofit organizations, and elected officials in finding bipartisan solutions to ensure affordable, quality health care and long-term financial security for Americans.
American Medical Association: Voice for the Uninsured.org
The American Medical Association website includes the organization's proposal for expanding coverage and choices for all Americans, information on the presidential candidates' platforms on health care, multimedia stories from uninsured Americans across all demographics, and more.
American Public Health Association
The oldest and most diverse organization of public health professionals in the world has been working to improve public health since 1872. Its website provides information about the organization's Public Health Action Campaign which aims to protect all Americans, their families and their communities from preventable, serious health threats and strives to assure that community-based health promotion, disease prevention activities and preventive health services are universally accessible in the United States.
BigGovHealth:
An Initiative of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest
The Web portal of this nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, which opposes government control in health care, offers news, information, and first-person experiences and views about government-run health care systems.
Campaign for an American Solution
The Campaign for an American Soution website tracks the nonpartisan, educational and grassroots initiative of America's Health Insurance Plans, the national insurance company trade association, which is planning to travel to states across the country to facilitate conversations about how to extend health care coverage to every American, reduce costs and increase the quality of care.
Center for American Progress
This progressive think tank's website explores current topics in health care, including malpractice reform, socialized medicine, tax policy's role in health care reform, and whether health care reform should be driven by individual states or the federal government.
The Coalition to Advance Healthcare Reform (CAHR)
This coalition actively works with business leaders and employers who are dedicated to engaging in the debate about healthcare and solving the crisis. The organization's approach to the healthcare reform policy debate centers around taking action at the state and national level to engage with lawmakers on the substantive issues.
Families USA
The website of this advocacy organization, which promotes high-quality, affordable health care for all Americans, includes an entire section devoted to the uninsured.
Healthcare-NOW!
Healthcare-Now! is a national campaign for a quality, guaranteed, nonprofit single-payer system in the United States. Check in on grassroots events across the country, sign a petition for the United States National Health Insurance Act, and organize your own local "Truth Hearing" about our country's health care crisis.
Healthcare for America NOW
The website of the national grassroots campaign for quality, affordable healthcare launched by labor unions and various liberal nonprofits includes petitions, tools for getting involved, the latest news on the debate on healthcare reform and links to advertisements on YouTube that use humor to highlight the plight of the uninsured and underinsured.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
The Department of Health and Human Services is the government's principal agency for protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services, especially for those who are least able to help themselves. It is also a sponsor of the Insure Kids NOW! national campaign.
Support Services
National Association of Community Health Care Centers
This umbrella organization of centers focused on providing medical care to underserved populations includes on it a useful set of links to related organizations, government programs and more.
Single Stop USA
This foundation-funded website helps low-income individuals find and connect with public programs that offer assistance, including health care coverage.
MedlinePlus: Health Insurance
This website, a service of the National Library of Medicine and National Institute of Health, offers resources and information on health insurance and coverage.
National Health Care for the Homeless Council
The resources section of the National Health Care for the Homeless Council offers current state-by-state listings of 185 Health Care for the Homeless grantees and more than 300 subcontractors and 64 government and private contractors who provide health services for the homeless.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Health Resources and Services Administration
Search by state or county for federally funded health centers that offer care to all patients, even those without health insurance. POV's map of health care centers is no longer being updated. For a list of federal qualified health centers, visit hrsa.gov.
2008 Election
Kaiser Family Foundation
In addition to dozens of research reports on health-related topics, the Kaiser Family Foundation provides this handy way to compare the health care proposals offered by the 2008 presidential candidates.
Presidential RX
This website created by the Health Care Solutions Group, a nonpartisan health institute focused on supporting improvement in the health care system, attempts to clarify the key issues in the health care debate and provides related headlines, commentary from health policy experts and additional voter resources.
Health08.org
A central hub for resources and information about health policy issues in the 2008 election, the site — operated by the staff of the Kaiser Family Foundation — provides analysis of policy issues, regular public opinion surveys, daily news updates, video of speeches and debates from the campaign trail, original interviews and more.
Barak Obama.com: HealthCare
Democratic candidate Barak Obama's official website presents his plan for health care reform and additional information, including Obama's voting record on health care issues, a link for you to email your thoughts and discussion forums.
NPR.org: Election 2008: Issues: Taking the Pulse of the Candidates' Health Plans
In this short radio piece, NPR health correspondent Julie Rovner explains the major differences between the health care plans being proposed by Barak Obama and John McCain. (July 4, 2008)
Envisioning the Future: The 2008 Presidential Candidates' Health Reform Proposals
An interactive Web feature presented by the Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation supporting independent research on health care issues, allows you to compare the candidates' plans for health care reform overall and by specific issues such as tax credits and subsidies, prevention and chronic disease management and insurance market regulation. Comparisons of former candidates' plans are also available.
Time: Swampland Blog: The Great Health Care Debate of 2008 Is Finally Engaged
This blog post calls attention to the deep philosophical differences between the health care reform plans proposed by John McCain and Barak Obama and the degree to which McCain's plan is a departure from the system we have now. (April 30, 2008)
Slate.com: Health Care Reform: The Slugfest Begins: Meet the Interest Groups That Will Decide the Fate of Medical Insurance
This article looks at the role lobby groups will play in the debate on health care reform by spotlighting two recently launched campaigns created by key opposing groups: the Campaign for an American Solution backed by the insurance companies and Health Care for American NOW! backed by labor unions and other liberal nonprofits. (July 22, 2008)
KQED: You Decide: Should the United States Adopt a Single-Payer, Universal Health Care Plan?
If you think you know where you stand on the issue of health care, think again. This online devil's advocate quiz created by the interactive division of KQED walks you through the pros and cons of adopting a single-payer universal health care plan, challenging your point of view every step of the way.
PBS and NPR
PBS.org Websites
Bill Moyers Journal: Health Care Index
This index of video and special features offers complete and continuing coverage of the health care reform debate from Bill Moyers. Various program pages that explore perspectives not being heard on Capitol Hill or on the major news outlets contain a wealth of resources and information about specific issues, reform approaches and plan details.
Frontline: Sick Around the World
The companion site for the Frontline segment that looks at the different ways in which five capitalist democracies, including Great Britain, Japan, Germany, Taiwan and Switzerland, have tackled the issue of health care for their citizens. The site includes a link to the broadcast, a digest of each country's health care system and interviews with key stakeholders, including politicians, health care experts and economists.
Online NewsHour: Health Beat: The Uninsured in America
This in-depth exploration of the uninsured in America includes recent reports on why those in need of care are being left behind: resources, including an interactive map of the uninsured by state; a timeline on health insurance in the United States; and articles on how the problem affects businesses and what state and local governments are doing about it.
Now: Science and Health: America's Health in Perspective
This webpage from the PBS program Now offers resources to find out if your state is working on new healthcare proposals. (February 24, 2006)
Other Public Policy Productions, Inc. Films on PBS
Aging Out
Written, produced, and directed by Roger Weisberg, this film was originally aired on PBS in 2005. The film follows several young people as they "age out" of the foster care system with little preparation to survive on their own. The website features a viewer's guide and extensive resources for foster care.
A Brooklyn Family Tale
Originally broadcast in 2002, A Brooklyn Family Tale chronicles the struggles of the Santiago family and their unique relationship with Sister Geraldine who runs a local social services agency. As the parents watch their teenage children drop out of school, join gangs, have babies, attempt suicide, and resort to violence at home, we witness Sister Geraldine's remarkable efforts to keep this embattled family intact.
Sound and Fury
A 2001 Academy Award nominee for Best Documentary Feature, Sound and Fury documents one family's struggle over whether or not to provide two deaf children with cochlear implants, devices that can stimulate hearing. As the Artinians of Long Island, New York debate what is the right choice for the two deaf cousins, Heather, 6, and Peter, 1 1/2, viewers are introduced to one of the most controversial issues affecting the deaf community today. Cochlear implants may provide easier access to the hearing world, but what do the devices mean for a person's sense of identity with deaf culture?
Why Can't We Be a Family Again?
Why Can't We Be a Family Again? begins in 1997, when child welfare authorities warn Kitten Jacob that she must complete a drug treatment program or lose her parental rights forever. She enrolls in a residential treatment center in upstate New York and appears to be making progress, but drops out after only four months, returning to drug use and the streets of Brooklyn. The film follows three years in the lives of two brothers who long for their family to be reunited in this Academy Award-nominated documentary.
NPR Stories
NPR.org: Election 2008: Issues: Taking the Pulse of the Candidate's Health Plans
In this radio piece, NPR health correspondent Julie Rovner explains the major differences between the health care plans being proposed by Barak Obama and John McCain. (July 4, 2008)
Health Care: NPR
This webpage brings together all of NPR's stories on health, including healthcare and health insurance issues.
NPR: Americans Cutting Back on Medical Care, Poll Finds
Part of the NPR series Feeling the Economic Pinch, this section explores growing health care costs and the results of a poll conducted in the swing states of Florida and Ohio for NPR by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health. Listen to the corresponding radio piece and read the full results of the poll, in which one in four people — including middle-class people with jobs and health insurance — say they're having trouble paying their medical bills.
NPR Podcast Directory: Health and Science
Listen to NPR's collection of in-depth reports on medicine, staying healthy and the major issues surrounding health care.
PBS Station Outreach Around Critical Condition
Public Broadcasting has a long tradition of engaging and reaching out to audiences. Whether it's bringing people together in person before, during or after a broadcast or helping people virtually connect with online resources and each other, public broadcasting's core mission looks to serve viewers both on-air and off. A number of PBS television stations are engaged in the Critical Condition National Outreach Campaign managed by Outreach Extensions and POV Read more about some of their outreach efforts and get information about local resources. Read on to access local resources and find out what your local PBS station is doing around the health care issues presented in Critical Condition.
Connecticut Public Television
Connecticut Public Television and Making Connections Hartford collaborated on Critical Condition: Focus on Connecticut, a 30-minute local documentary and a live town hall meeting moderated by Stan Simpson, Hartford Courant columnist and WTIC-AM talk show host, featuring expert panelists Donald Williams, state senator and president pro tempore; Chris Donovan, state representative and house majority leader; Patricia Baker, president and CEO of the Connecticut Health Foundation; Efrain Agosto, interim dean and professor of the New Testament at the Hartford Seminary; Joe Brennan, senior vice president of public policy for the Connecticut Business and Industry Association; Kevin Lembo, healthcare advocate; Jerry Long, president and CEO of the PCC Technology Group; and Stephen Jewett, director of corporate communications at ConnectiCare. Read more about it on the website of Conneticut Public Television.
Detroit Public TV
Detroit Public Television produced a half-hour program on the uninsured for its weekly public affairs series American Black Journal. The January 27, 2008 episode features Wayne Bradley, CEO of the Detroit Community Health Connection, as he joins host Cliff Russell to discuss the issue of low cost access to health care; and a school teacher who talks about losing her medical insurance. You can watch the episode online
For viewers interested in information about general health, such as nutrition, mental health and other health-related issues, please visit Detriot Public TV's health page.
Dr. Dowlng, Carlos and Dr. Shamie at KCET's screening of Critical Condition.
KCET | Los Angeles
On September 23, 2008 KCET, the UCLA School of Public Health and the UCLA Health System hosted a preview screening and panel discussion highlighting Carlos Benitez's story from Critical Condition. A number of people from the film were in attendance including Carlos, Dr. Arya Nick Shamie, and Dr. Patrick Dowling who moderated the panel discussion. The panel included Dr. Felix Nunez, vice president of clinical services at the Community Clinic Association of Los Angeles County; Ninez Ponce, associate professor of health services at UCLA's School of Public Health and Dr. Robert Ross, president and CEO of the California Endowment.
KCTS 9 (Seattle, WA)
KCTS's public affairs show KCTS 9 Connects will air an October 3rd special on the uninsured. The program introduces viewers to a mother who lost her job, and subsequently, her insurance, because she missed too much work after developing pulmonary hypertension; and to employees and patients at Sea Mar, a nonprofit community health center near Seattle. Host Enrique Cerna also interviews Dr. Bob Crittenden of Harborview Medical Center to help make sense of the health care situation in America. You can watch it online starting October 15.
Learn more about KCTS 9 Connects.
KET: Kentucky Educational Television
On Kentucky Educational Television's interview and discussion series, Connections with Renee Shaw, Renee and a panel of experts extend the impact of Critical Condition by discussing Kentucky's uninsured and underinsured children and the Kentucky Children's Health Insurance Program. The program airs Friday, October 10 at 4/3 p.m. CT on KET2 and Sunday, October 12 at 1:30/12:30 p.m. CT on KET1. Beginning in November, you can watch it online.
KET also teamed up with middle school students in Louisville to create a video project. After students learned about the pressing health care issues featured in Critical Condition, they were prompted to research health issues important to them. The result is a 15 minute film project that realistically portrays sex and sexually transmitted diseases among teens in their community. The film won top honors and a $500 prize at the Metro United Way Youth Film Festival! Watch a five minute clip from their film,
"Don't Fall for the Okey Doke!" If you would like a free copy of the film to use in your community, please contact Laura Crawford. (Lcrawford [at ] ket.org)
The experts at KETC's town hall meeting, following a screening of Critical Condition, discussed health care in America.
KETC Channel 9: St Louis Public Television
KETC and the Missouri Foundation for Health sponsored a screening of Critical Condition followed by a town hall meeting featuring James Kimmey, M.D./M.P.H., president of Missouri Foundation for Health; Dolores Gunn, M.D., director of the St. Louis County Health Department; Judy Bentley, R.N.C., M.A., director of Community Health-In-Partnership Services (CHIPS); Sidney Watson, J.D. professor of Law, St. Louis University School of Law; Louise Probst, St. Louis Area Business Health Coalition; with Jillann Spitzmiller, co-producer and co-director of Critical Condition present.
For health care resources in Missouri, please visit:
MFH Health Resource Directory
Cover Missouri Project
KLRN: San Antonio Public Television
On September 18, 2008 Metro Health and KLRN in collaboration with Making Connections San Antonio hosted Critical Condition: A Town Hall, a live call in program to discuss the root causes of public health issues, potential solutions, action steps and what San Antonio residents can do to improve their nutrition and well-being.
KLRU: Austin PBS
KLRU created short documentary vignettes featuring stories of five central Texans and their struggles to obtain adequate health care. These stories show how the health care crisis impacts both the uninsured and the insured. Sara Robertson, producer of the segments, reported, "My experience producing our local stories on the uninsured and underinsured has been an eye-opening one. I began the project with limited knowledge on the state of our nation's health care. I've always been fortunate to hold jobs that offered good health insurance, I would even say I took it for granted. Once I began this project however, I quickly realized I am in the minority of Americans who receive affordable, accessible coverage." Watch the vignettes online.
For additional information on: help for the uninsured or underinsured consumers/patients; information for policy makers, advocates and those wishing to volunteer; research on the uninsured/underinsured; and solutions or best practices underway in central Texas visit KLRU's website.
KNPB: Reno Public Broadcasting
On September 21, 2008 KNPB brought the national health care issues presented in Critical Condition home to Nevada in their monthly call-in show, OpenLine. Local leaders examined what works and what doesn't in the health care systems that serve northern Nevadans.
Join the discussion by commenting on The OpenLine Blog. Beginning November 1, watch the entire show online.
KUED Channel 7: Salt Lake City
On September 16, 2008 KUED, the Salt Lake County Office of Diversity and Centro De La Familia hosted a screening and panel discussion of Critical Condition as part of KUED's Diverse Voices Series and Films to See Before You Vote. The event served as a catalyst for dialogue on health care needs and state insurance programs — key issues being addressed in the state legislature. A Spanish edition of the program was also shown on September 8, featuring Carlos and Hector's stories.
LPB, along with the American Association of Retired People, hosted a preview screening of Critical Condition.
Louisiana Public Broadcasting: LPB
In Louisiana, figures from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation's statehealthfacts.org study show that 24% of all non-elderly adults and 52% of the adults living below the poverty level are uninsured. To raise awareness about these alarming health care statistics in Louisiana, LPB hosted a preview screening of Critical Condition for the local chapter of the American Association of Retired People (AARP) to discuss the situation. The station also launched an enhanced website for Critical Condition which includes an in-depth analysis on the healthcare situation in Louisiana. To read reports on the health care situation in Louisiana, please visit LPB's Health website.
Maryland Public Television: MPT
On June 27, 2008 Maryland Public Television produced a segment for its local public affairs show, State Circle, which featured Vinnie DeMarco, president of the Maryland Citizens' Health Initiative, discussing health care legislation and eligibility for health care programs. Watch the segment on YouTube and add your comments.
Rocky Mountain PBS: Colorado's Public Television Network
Rocky Mountain PBS screened Critical Condition at three town hall discussions in Grand Junction, Pueblo and Denver to highlight national health care issues. To read more about local Rocky Mountain PBS viewers' health care stories, and download the Critical Condition Colorado Resource guide, visit Rocky Mountain PBS's website.
WFYI Indianapolis
Working with CBS affiliate WISH TV and other city and state organizations, WFYI produced a town hall that addressed the state of health care in Indiana called Good News/Bad News: Reflections on Our Access to Health Care. Watch it online.
Participants included:
Robert Hillman, president, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield in Indiana
Dr. Donald H. Trainor, Jr., chief medical officer, HealthNet, Inc.
David Marrerro, PhD, professor of medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine
Nancy Griffin, advocate for disability rights, United Senior Action Indiana
Dr. Richard Feldman, family medicine director, St. Francis Hospital and Health Center; former state health commissioner
Eric Wright, PhD, director of Health Policy, School of Public and Enviromental Affairs, Indiana University
Seema Verma, consultant, Indiana Family and Social Services Administration
WPT's Community Forum on Race and Diversity hosted a screening of Critical Condition.
WPT: Wisconsin Public Television
On September 16, 2008 WPT's Community Forums on Race and Diversity hosted a screening of Critical Condition, followed by a discussion facilitated by Tess Arenas, Ph.D. WPT considered the event a resounding success as it forged new partnerships with Center for Patient Partnerships, an advocacy organization on the University of Wisconsin — Madison (UW — Madison) campus; a nursing class at UW — Madison that used the film as part of its curriculum; and members of the community who are raising awareness about Wisconsin's uninsured.
Listen to Dr. Roberta Riportella , director of Covering Kids and Families — Wisconsin, talk about the stresses and hazards of living without health insurance on the September 15, 2008 edition of public radio program At Issue with Ben Merens. Download the podcast of the interview.
Congratulations to WPT and Covering Kids and Families — Wisconsin who were awarded a Program Innovation Grant from the University of Wisconsin — Extension for their efforts to raise awareness about the uninsured!
WXEL Public Television and Radio: Servicing South Florida, the Palm Beaches and the Treasury Coast
WXEL produced two specials on the health care crisis in the local South Florida community for South Florida Today, the station's award-winning magazine show. Part One details the heartbreaking stories of local residents while Part Two uses excerpts from Critical Condition to present pressing health care issues and features experts who take questions from the audience. Watch the shows online.
WXXI: Rochester Public Broadcasting
On September 30, 2008 WXXI's 1370 Connection, an award winning live listener call-in program, featured James Fatula, chairman of the Department of Public Administration at SUNY-Brockport, as he discussed the economic and societal costs of uninsured Americans. In addition, on October 3rd and 5th, Need to Know, WXXI's award winning half-hour weekly public affairs television program, will air a segment featuring St. Joseph's Neighborhood Center, a solution-based program that relies on volunteer doctors, residents and nurses to provide free health care to the working poor and unemployed.
Read more about these programs on WXXI's website.
The Critical Condition Outreach Campaign, co-managed by POV and Outreach Extensions, is made possible by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the California Endowment, the California Health Care Foundation, the Charles A. Frueauff Foundation, the Commonwealth Fund, the Fledgling Fund, the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, the Missouri Foundation for Health, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the Park Foundation, the Public Welfare Foundation, the Spunk Fund and the Trull Foundation.