The Healthcare Divide (full documentary) | FRONTLINE

How pressure to increase profits and uneven government support are widening the divide between rich and poor hospitals, endangering care for low-income populations. With NPR and the Investigative Reporting Workshop.


COVID has put a spotlight on disparities in American healthcare and the large urban hospitals hit hard by the pandemic. But many of these “safety net” hospitals, whose primary mission is to serve low-income, working-class communities, have been in crisis for years.

From FRONTLINE producers Rick Young, Emma Schwartz & Fritz Kramer and NPR correspondent Laura Sullivan, “The Healthcare Divide” explores the growing inequities in American healthcare exposed by COVID-19 — and their consequences.

For more reporting in connection with this investigation, visit FRONTLINE’s website:

#Documentary #COVID #Healthcare

Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Major funding for FRONTLINE is provided by the Ford Foundation. Additional funding is provided by the Abrams Foundation; the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Park Foundation; and the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund with major support from Jon and Jo Ann Hagler on behalf of the Jon L. Hagler Foundation, and additional support from Koo and Patricia Yuen.

[bluetortilla]

Take the last line to heart: "If you're mad, change the rules." It is criminal to make health care an industry of greed over a caregiver to all the people.

[jedison]

I hope the US will catch up to the 20th century and get actual universal healthcare.

[s.s.s]

This is NOT healthcare system. This is HEALTHCARE MARKET

[ivanalcantar]

Really puts into perspective the whole idea that people from Canada come to the U.S. to get expensive treatments done our doctors. But only if you can afford it. As far as basic medical coverage it seems that Canada and most of the world has that already covered. Our medical system is amazing for the people who can afford it, very cutting edge. Unfortunately most of us would rather die than call an ambulance because then we will die of debt.

[dondressel]

I’m sick with cancer
The treatment is very good
The doctors and nurses and other staff are wonderful
The bills are ridiculous

[jt]

I'm sorry but I don't see how America can call itself the best at anything, except for greed. Ridiculous!

[sandraalegria]

You shouldn't have to worry about medical Bill's when you are sick. The more I work the more I spend on meds and Docs.

[neggylydejesus]

Thanks for another great documentary and giving us an open eye into the broken, many times shameful and complex America's health care system.

[kusheran]

The system itself makes perfect sense. The rich are getting richer even in healthcare (in a pandemic).

[maxsmum]

Living in Australia, I can’t even understand this way of thinking…all hospitals and doctors visits should be free for everyone.

[ailleananaithnid]

I’m a nurse & a lawyer who graduated from university when this all began back in 1980. There is a fundamental problem with the for-profit model in healthcare. The two are mutually exclusive to anyone who believes that healthcare is a basic human right regardless of ability to pay.

The desire to turn a profit will always trump quality of patient care. I’m sad to say I’m not at all surprised to hear that patients were given paper towels instead of wash cloths. These shenanigans have been going on for years as safety net hospitals lose more & more money while the vampires swoop in to buy them & flip them (for profit, of course.) The community based hospitals that existed when I was in college have all closed. None of the corporations give a hoot that those communities are without community based healthcare. It’s disgraceful.

[kinkle_Z]

Fight AGAINST Private Hospitals, AKA...for profit hospitals. THEY ARE FOR PROFIT!! Not for YOU!

[PT-frcq]

I like how the doctor quickly corrected his statement from "that is our burden..."... "Our mission"... when talking about the poor that rely on that hospital.

[khaido]

That’s where things go wrong when corporations takes over the healthcare.

[DeniseRene]

I’m a recent RN grad. Watching docs like this reinforce my goal to pursue a career in public health. I want to learn more about these healthcare disparities and find a way to help.

[MT-hvpu]

Hello there from the Czech republic. The public healthcare system here works as in Germany; that means health insurance companies pay to public and private hospitals for every surgery, work, and so forth an amount that is set by the government. The whole system is paid by taxes. The health insurance tax is 13, 5% from the super gross salary = 4, 5% from your gross salary and 9% is paid by your employer and it is compulsory. Entrepreneurs have their tax categories related to their income. Everybody who is employed or older than 26 years has to pay it. We've got some issues, but overall it is a very good system that really cares about prevention. Almost all imaginable checks are for free, especially for newborns, because the system knows that it is cheaper to prevent a disease or disorder from happening than it is allowing it to develop. I've got to say that the healthcare system that is in place in the US is ridiculous. And it is even though the US is the richer country by GDP and so on. Do something about it.

[Dercho]

My fear is the goal post keeps moving. Full retirement & medical care for my generation is already looking like past age 70. That is not sustainable.

[anth]

I'm Australian living here in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Seeing this makes me shudder and watch in disbelief. We here in Australia have universal healthcare through our Medicare system. with medications subsidised on our PBS system (Meaning medications which would usually cost thousands, are equitably accessible.

[davidhardister]

This is venture capitalism at its finest. Buy, reduce, leverage, sell, repeat.

[GenXrCist]

The USA is and already has been a “great” country, but the ONLY industrialized nation without universal healthcare. I’ve lived in two countries as an ex-pat (not military) where I was provided excellent healthcare without question. The USA is rich enough that healthcare, poor health and nutrition in general that hunger and prevented illnesses should not exist, but it does. Like F. Scott Fitzgerald says in The Great Gatsby, “one thing's sure and nothing's surer The rich get richer and the poor get children.”