Gambling With Health Care-Now on PBS-3 20 09-sdtv xvid

Gambling With Health Care-Now on PBS-3.20.09-sdtv xvid

[Streaming video of this program will be available online after broadcast]

How the economic collapse is creating a health care calamity.

Losing your job is a blow not just to your income, but also to your health insurance. Many can't afford high COBRA premiums, much less private insurance. And the sputtering economy is making a bad situation tragic.

NOW travels to Nevada, where a huge budget deficit, spiking unemployment, and cuts in Medicaid and other public services are forcing people to gamble with their own lives. Recently, the only public hospital in Las Vegas had to shut its doors to cancer patients and pregnant women. Should the government be helping out?

NOW shares the human stories behind the distressing numbers, and investigates possible solutions and responses with insight from Dr. Howard Dean, former Vermont governor and chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

With the economic disaster blowing holes in society's health care safety net, who's left to catch our fall?

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