PBS looking for patients forced into bankruptcy from medical bills.

[Guest guest]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Kate McMahon <_katemcmahon1@..._

(mailto:katemcmahon1@...) >

Date: September 30, 2008 1:14:06 PM PDT

" Gil Mileikowsky ,M.D. " <_gil@..._

(mailto:gil@...) >

Subject: Underinsured to bankruptcy

Hi Gil,

I am hoping to meet a patient who, sadly, was forced to file bankruptcy

solely because of medical bills. Ideally, I'd like to talk with someone who

was

insured when an accident or illness occurred, but found out that they were

under-insured, meaning that high deductibles and co-pays resulted in monumental

costs that thrust them into financial distress.

Their story could help illuminate part of America's health care system,

which is that most under-insured Americans are one injury or illness away from

financial distress, possibly bankruptcy.

If you could help with my search, that would be great. Below is the

synopsis of the film.

All the best,

Kate McMahon

Co-producer

FRONTLINE

503-757-3033

FRONTLINE: SICK AROUND AMERICA

Unlike the integrated systems in most advanced democracies [examined in

FRONTLINE: “Sick Around the Worldâ€], America’s health care is a

patchwork. Two

large federal programs cover the elderly and the very poor, another covers

veterans, yet another American Indians. And for the rest of us, there’s

private insurance.

This program is about the 225 million Americans under 65, not covered by

Medicaid, who seek access to health care via the private insurance market. At

a

time of intense interest in health care reform, Washington Post

correspondent T.R.Reid travels across America investigating how this system

works: from

large employer sponsored insurance to the small group market to the individual

market.

While America is home to perhaps the most advanced medicine in the world,

not everyone has access to it. As is often reported in the media, some 47

million people have no insurance and tens of millions are underinsured.

According

to researchers at the Institute of Medicine and Harvard University, this

leads to some 18,000 avoidable deaths and hundreds of thousands of personal

bankruptcies each year. But what has received much less coverage is the fact

that even people with insurance are vulnerable.

Over a 3-year period, one in four Americans finds themselves out in the cold

looking for affordable insurance. Why? Adults lose jobs, get divorced,

move, suffer serious illness etc; dependent children age, becoming ineligible

for

their parent’s plan. Suddenly America is a scarier place. If you seek

insurance alone–in the “individual marketâ€â€”the insurance company now

has the

right to assess your health––a practice called medical

underwriting––and if

you are sick, charge you more or deny you coverage. A series of critical

choices now have to be made…and those choices depend not only on an

individual’s

wealth but also an arcane mix of federal and state laws.

How best to reform a system where many Americans find themselves uninsured,

underinsured, or uninsurable, where costs are rising four times faster than

wages, and where different stakeholders hold very different perspectives?

This program will lay the groundwork for an informed conversation about fixing

our sick health care system.

Audience

FRONTLINE is the highest rated public affairs series on PBS, with ratings

more than three times the audience of “Hardball†(MSNBC), “a Zahnâ€

(CNN)

and “The Daily Show†(Comedy Central).

FRONTLINE premiere (60-minute) broadcasts reach more than 3 million viewers

in a given week. The FRONTLINE audience is nearly equally comprised of

viewers under and over the age of 50, and is one of the youngest skewing series

on

public television. On average, the FRONTLINE audience attracts viewers who

tend to be well educated and informed about public issues and world affairs,

and are active in their community. FRONTLINE viewers are more likely than

the average adult American to:

• Have a post graduate degree

• Read a daily newspaper

• Vote in local, state and federal elections

• Have written something that's been published

• Have worked for a political party

• Be a member of a business club

• Be a member of a school or College Board

FRONTLINE’s web site averages 36-million page views/season. There have been

15+ million video streams served to date.

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