Healthcare System

Healthcare in America is arguably the best in the world, but only for those who can afford it. This penetrating four-part series from ABC News goes to the front lines of the healthcare crisis to take an unflinching look at a system that is itself in failing health. Heroic measures to prop the system up are also presented, as are some glimmers of hope for a solution-or at least the beginnings of one. 4-part series, 23 minutes each.

In this powerful four-part series, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Hedrick Smith travels the length and breadth of the United States to critically examine the quality, affordability, and availability of healthcare. Case studies of ordinary Americans, supported by thorough medical and academic research, provide a timely checkup for a medical system that more and more say is in need of intensive care. 4-part series, 47-49 minutes each.

Is America's healthcare system at death's door? And are patients with incurable diseases inadvertently being hastened to their graves? This compelling two-part series examines the dual prognosis for the management of the nation's overburdened healthcare system and the management of the pain of terminally ill patients. 2-part series, 29 minutes each.

Who is to blame for America's healthcare mess, and how can we fix it? In this ABC News program, John Stossel examines the insurance industry, the need for competition among care providers, and the possibility of combining lower costs with better medicine. Arguing against Michael Moore's documentary Sicko, which advocates government-funded healthcare, Stossel interviews Harvard Business School professor Regina Herzlinger, who takes aim at the legislative process as well as insurers and hospitals. Featuring doctors who have forged direct relationships with their patients by eliminating insurance middlemen, the program also spotlights Whole Foods CEO John Mackey and his company's innovative health savings account plans. (40 minutes)