In this hour-long lecture from the Chautauqua Institution, award-winning investigative journalists Donald Barlett & James Steele offer their findings on the current state of the American health care system. They present the data of how America is behind almost every major developed nation in terms of its health care rank, and yet Americans spend more than almost every major developed nation for their health care.
Barlett & Steele conclude that the reason for this is that a for-profit health care system contains many factors that work against affordable, quality health care for all and they mention dozens of examples of irrational, profit-driven motives at work in the system. They propose a single payer health care plan like most other developed nations have, but they acknowledge that the prospects for such a plan are bleak when $2 trillion are at stake and the health insurance lobby is the largest in Washington.