Dear FRONTLINE,

FRONTLINE'S Sick Around America did a fine job, in a limited time, of providing insights into several facets of our national disgrace aka the financing of our healthcare non-system. Arm Chair Quarterbacks, like myself, would have wanted the film to include:

1. A spotlight on the politics of healthcare, which sustains hollow reform and enables those benefiting financially from it to prevail ... indeed, proliferate their roles.

2. A focus on the impact of fraud, waste, and abuse, which are exponentially more costly than technology, malpractice insurance, defensive medicine, or other superficial excuses for not dealing directly with the paralyses of real reform.

3. The fundamental question: Why should the nation entrust the insurance industry, which has exhibited for decades patterns of egregious business practices, blindness to public interest concerns, unbridled greed, and an unconscionable contempt for its customers?

Terry Brauer
Chicago, IL

Dear FRONTLINE,

Sadly Frontline left out discussion of Single Payer or even Obama's Public Option plan that he ran his campaign on, but at least the problems of private health insurance have been exposed because until you have to deal with it, you just have no idea that it runs the way it does. I was laid off from my job 2 months ago, where I carried the health insurance for my husband and I because we couldn't afford his company's insurance. It's great for some that Cobra is subsidized and more affordable now, but I am ineligible for Cobra because insurance is "available" through his company. Yes, the same unaffordable insurance that caused me to take the full time job that I lost. The result is that we will probably insure my husband through his company and I will face a life with NO insurance since I have been denied private insurance due to a pretty bogus pre-existing condition.

I would love to see the problem exposed even more by getting loud mouth right-wing talk hosts and hypocritical members of Congress who have the best taxpayer-funded insurance available but who rail against "socialized medicine" to apply for private health insurance just to see if they could get it. My bet would be that they couldn't. Remember how even cancer survivor John McCain would've been denied the very insurance that he wanted the rest of us to get? What a joke.

Cecil Township, PA

Dear FRONTLINE,

There are three issues that I believe carry much weight that were not discussed in the episode.First is the main cost that drives our medical system into the ground- poor health. Lack of exercise and poor diet contribute more than any other factor to high cost problems like heart disease, high cholesterol, diabetes, and obesity. As a nation, we need to improve the mindset of the citizens by pushing health initiatives like eating healthy, exercising daily, and quitting smoking.Second, I believe uninsureds need some way to negotiate their medical costs. These costs are inflated by providers in order to recoup a greater portion from insurers. Doctors & hospitals should be limited to charging the Medicare-approved rate for services to those without any bargaining power.Third, another culprit in the inflation of costs is the incredible cost of malpractice insurance. Though technology is a major cost for doctors and hospitals, the liability insurance costs that they face are also being passed on to patients and society. These high costs also act as a barrier to entry for doctors who would otherwise become general practitioners. This has moved the delivery of care away from the family doctors to a host of higher cost specialty doctors. Finally, it is up to Americans to decide to live more healthy lives, which will in turn reduce the demand for medical procedures and prescriptions and thus lower costs.Thank you for your reporting.

Charles Rosenbaum
New York, NY

Dear FRONTLINE,

Thank you Frontline for producing this and the "Sick Around the World" episodes. Although we, as Americans, may disagree about healthcare in this country, we need to be aware that along with education, energy policy, and the economy this issue should and must be addressed.

As I see it, and as were discussed in both pieces, there are two essential questions: 1) Should we have some sort of universal healthcare?2) If so, how do we pay for it?

Personally, I believe deeply and with great moral conviction, yes, we should. To me, it is a basic human right. There are many who would disagree, but I think it speaks to what sort of person they are, and I hope there are more who would agree rather than not. As for cost, it will have to be balanced and come from all sectors. Doctors, hospitals, insurance companies (or other healthcare entities/payers), government, and consumers. We all have a stake and we all should make sacrifices and contribute. Idealistic? Perhaps, but I also think it's cold hard realism.

Joel Steinbrecher
Chicago, IL

Dear FRONTLINE,

Until health care comes to be seen as a right, nothing will change, and it only such a change in attitude that will make a single payer system possible. Perhaps if Mr. Long's suggestion is taken, and people only got the medical care they could afford, the true costs would be more apparent--particularly as those costs come to be paid in numbers of bodies, of people dying in their homes and on the streets of this nation. I fear it will take such a Dickensian spectacle to permit the political powers that be to effectively address the problem. In the interim, I expect to work until I die (without medical coverage and precious little medical care), or until I get too ill to work and die in penury.

Des Moines, Iowa

Dear FRONTLINE,

While you did make some good points for folks who are totally uninformed( and never saw SiCKO) it seemed as if this was to promote Obama's health plan. I was also disappointed that all the examples were white middle class folks-no diversity at all. Pretty sad.

Speaking as a long time Single Payer activist it sure would be refreshing to see PBS do a documentary on why Single Payer is the only real solution-interviewing folks from the other countries who have coverage and why they would not want to trade for ours. Debunking all the myths that the other countries' systems are failing and unpopular. More and more states have Single Payer bills going through the legislative process. The public and now more than half of the doctors are supporting Single Payer. Amy Goodman seems to be the only responsible journalist pointing this out on her Democracy Now program. You mentioned Taiwan and could have expanded more on it as a model for the US. It was in the Sick Around the World piece, as I recall.

Lynn Huidekoper,RN
Menlo Park, CA

Dear FRONTLINE,

A daunting task like establishing universal healthcare is best approached incrementally. I suggest step one should be to see to it that everyone gets access to preventive medicine - I mean routine diagnostics. Add to that a substantive effort at public education, letting people know how important it is to get those tests. If you don't tackle preventive medicine first you are making work for yourself in terms of people needing more expensive treatment.

Then you can go after universal repair medicine.

lucy flanagan
seattle, wa

Dear FRONTLINE,

Your "Sick Around America" show was excellent in all respects except one. Once again you held to the media standard of maintaining absolute blackout regarding the option of a "Single Payer" system. Most advanced countries provide superior care, far more efficiently, with less cost without the burden of insurance. Your coverage never included that possibility as proposed by HR 676. And, you stated that President Obama's meeting included all the stakeholders without mentioning that Single Payer advocates were deliberately excluded. Such coverage withholds critical information from the public.

Jerry Reed
Grants Pass, Oregon

Dear FRONTLINE,

I doubt America's health insurance companies are interested in any meaningful reform. Insurance executives with their nine-figure compensation packages and large institutional investors who have fared extremely well under our market-based health care financing system are not willing to give all that up.

Other nations that use private plans do so within a program of social insurance. Their plans are designed for the public good, assisting individuals in receiving the care they need without having to be concerned about the source of payment. They fulfill the insurance function by effectively pooling risks, whether through a single risk pool or though various methods of risk adjustment. Our private plans are based on a business model designed to ensure success in the health care marketplace. Success is defined by the medical loss ratio, spending the least they can on health care. Much of their profound administrative waste is due to their elaborate efforts to avoid paying for care.

The nations with the most efficient health care delivery systems use a single, universal risk pool that is equitably funded. This is most easily accomplished through progressive taxes. If we did the same here in the United States, why would we continue to support the intrusion of the wasteful private insurers who do no more than take away our choice of hospitals and physicians while laying bets on our health?

With single payer, public administration is much more efficient, plus enrollment is a one-time event – absolutely everyone is covered for life.

Representatives for Single Payer are legion. Frontline could do no harm by interviewing them.

Martin Bring
Bellingham, Washington

Dear FRONTLINE,

After seeing both the "health programs" (World vs US), I think Obama should just take the Taiwan system and ramp down Congress to get that pass. I am pretty sure all Americans will support him. We have enough smart people here than can come up with a system w/out the input of the insurance companies. There only two parts to this equation: doctors and patients. I am pretty sure all "good" and conscientious doctors will make all effort to cure the sicks -- the last things they want is to look at the bill. So do the patients -- the last thing they want is to worry about the bill when disasters struck them.

1) Make health care universal2) Train more doctors and nurses -- the universities are monoplizing this and dont make enough efforts to get the more peope through the systems. Today, with so much needs for nurses -- why can't we train them? 3) Get rid of the insurance companies -- we really don't need them.

When I see the bill for $1Millions -- I wonder how is that possible? Someone makes profit on that -- it's sure isn't the sicks. We have a system that acting like a parasite on the sicks -- until we see it that way, it's hard to do much.

Zachery

Zard Zachery
Fremont, CA

Dear FRONTLINE,

Why don't we eliminate the middle man (Insurance Companies).Insurance Companies do nothing to help people get better. They are just a middle man making a profit off the sick I see no reason for them having anything to do with health! It should be illegal for them to have anything to do with medicine. How do they help with anyone's health?I am a diabetic and have survived for 43 years of diabetes having only had insurance for the first 5 years of my disease.Insurance companies are a joke, if you have any illness you are out of luck. No compassion from them.

Petaaluma, CA

Dear FRONTLINE,

There is more than enough blame in this entire mess to go around.The real reason health care is such a mess is the same reason the economy is in such a mess. We as a society, value money, more than we do people.

Willard Gatzke
Canon City, Colorado

Dear FRONTLINE,

My father and I just finished watching the piece on America's health care, it was very interesting to say the least. I myself am only eightteen and I am pretty sure I don't have to worry about health problems for a while, but what concerns me are my loved ones. My father is in his fifties, without health care and his only insurance is "Don't get sick". I find this ridiculous and no one no matter what age should have that type of mindset, especially with our technology.

I find it amazing, but not surprising, how our government has let this go out of control for so long. What I find even more amazing is that the American people have let this happen. Do the people who run the insurance companies have no souls? Does the government really care? Or is it just more money in their pockets..? All in all I don't think there is any reason or excuse what so ever, to treat people like this. It is unjust, and I honestly don't know how these people sleep at night.

Hopefully later on in my life this country will finally get it together and make this whole insurance thing work. This is no small issue and cannot be slept upon. If other countries can make it work why not this one? One answer I can think of is, we are one selfish country and everything is about ourselves. As long as the top dogs are making big bucks off of our misfortune, who really cares? We are of no importance to them, we are just the little people that keep them at the top.

So please, become informed and not let them blind you with their haze. Thank you PBS for clearing up that haze and making great programs such as Frontline.

Continue to tell it like it is :)

Renee Park
Los Angeles, California

Dear FRONTLINE,

Thank you for covering this. Now that the middle class is being significantly impacted by job losses, the ridiculous practice of tying health benefits to an employer is finally coming under scrutiny. This is absolutely an economic issue and I'm disappointed that President Obama has decided to take single payer coverage off the table.

Everyone will need health care at some point. This needs to be a shared risk that we bear. Every western nation, except ours, provides this and their health metrics beat ours in every category.

Amy Flynn
Phoenix, AZ

Dear FRONTLINE,

Dear Frontline:

Where in the world did we ever get the idea that healthcare should be just another "typical" consumer good or service that we can either purchase or forgo? Didn't we ever stop to think that the guaranteed health of our citizens, families, and loved ones is not an OPTIONAL thing? Why is it right and proper for government to provide fire department services, police protection services, military services, and legal services - but NOT healthcare services? Who in their right mind would not put healthcare ahead of all these other government-provided services? Who would put up with having to provide a credit card number or a suitable insurance policy before they could summon the services of a policeman or fireman?

How can we possibly think of continuing this uncontrolled profit-intensive healthcare system when by all indications it is an abject failure and a national embarrassment? How many lives must be lost, sufferings prolonged, savings decimated, and bankruptcies endured before we finally decide that the only way for any moral society to provide healthcare for all is to put it at the top of government-provided services?

There are plenty of ways to utilize for-profit market mechanisms but healthcare is NOT one of them. At the end of the day for-profit healthcare is simply immoral.

Jim Thomas
Marietta, Georgia