A Prime -Time Discussion of Health-Care Is Needed On TV

My friend Velma and I, while sipping red wine in her book-lined living room, discussed, among other things, the health-care issue. I mentioned to her that in the old days of television, regular programming was preempted to devote an entire evening to an important issue of the day.
I believe that current-day TV viewers would be willing to forgo one night of reality TV or nighttime dramas and comedies to be educated about the pros and cons of health -care delivery in the U.S. and abroad. An evening-long program, for example, would be able to go into more historical detail about the Bismarck model than Frontline's one-hour report, "Sick Around the World" (PBS) was able to do. (Bismarck, the chancellor of Germany in the late 19th century, "is the guy," reported T.R. Reid, the program correspondent, "who invented the concept of health- care systems, the notion that a government has to provide mechanisms so all of its people can get medical care when they need it." Reid continued, " Thanks to the Bismarck model, everybody in Germany is offered health care. While the rich are allowed to opt out and pay privately, about 90 per cent of Germans choose to stay in the national system.") The health-care issue concerns all of us, whether we have health insurance or not, and a program like this would no doubt get high ratings.
An in-depth examination by journalists, medical experts, insurance executives, and elected officials in filmed reports, on-camera interviews, and round table discussions (along with Q and A sessions with a live studio audience and viewers) would be a welcome event at a time when health- care costs are going up and more and more people are going bankrupt because of exorbitant medical bills. Preferably, this program would be presented without commercial interruption.
Television programmers should give this idea some serious thought. Health -care is a hot topic that radio and TV talk show host Ed Schultz, for example, has made his prime concern.