Product Details

• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: PBS
• DVD Release Date: June 10, 2008
• Run Time: 60 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001A40ZDC
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #24,810 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
  • #6 in Movies & TV > DVD > TV News Programming

Editorial Reviews

Studio: Pbs Release Date: 04/16/2009

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must see for all interested in reforming health care, December 23, 2008

By 

A. Davis - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Frontline: Sick Around the World (DVD)

I saw this documentary after watching Michael Moore's "Sicko", and between the two, I liked "Sick Around the World" better. "Sicko" has its strong points, but it may be perceived as too politicized (which it is, and it's okay). Another reviewer complained that "Sick Around the World" did not cover other countries, such as Brazil, South Africa, and India, but I do not quite understand this complaint. The point of the documentary is to compare the health care systems in industrial countries, which are similar to the U.S., and the choice of selected countries is excellent. The narration was fine; I mean, it's not a Disney movie, right? I like that the narrator addressed shortcomings of universal health care in other countries. The stories of Switzerland and Taiwan, which switched to the universal health care very recently, are quite fascinating. If you have never been lived abroad and are interested in how other industrial countries treat their sick, you may find "Sick Around the World" eye opening.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best hour you'll spend understanding healthcare reform choices, June 23, 2009

By 

Robert Schwartz (Princeton, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Frontline: Sick Around the World (DVD)

The best overview of real world health care I've seen, this eye-opening survey covers the pros and cons of systems in 5 countries. (In contrast, Frontline's more recent documentary, Sick Around America, was a disappointment.)

We and our leaders could learn a lot from the experience of Switzerland, Germany, and Taiwan, and maybe what to avoid from Britain and Japan. Canada is not mentioned, but these other countries present a rich range of hybrid choices that are more similar to our situation in the U.S.

For example, the staunchly capitalist Swiss barely passed national healthcare reform in 1994, but now their citizens are very satisfied. Switzerland spends more per person on healthcare than any country except ours, but we spend 50% more than they do -- $700 billion per year of excess! Yet our health and longevity are worse, and we have a million families per year declaring bankruptcy due to medical bills.

We can do so much better, and this video helps show how by detailing what works and doesn't in the real-life systems of other similar countries. I'm looking forward to Reid's follow-up book The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care due out in August 2009. In the meantime, you can view this documentary on the PBS Frontline site, which also has many useful links. If you have an hour, do it now!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must See Documentary..., March 9, 2009

By 

Curtis Bard "c.bard" (Bard's Delight in Western New York) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Frontline: Sick Around the World (DVD)

This is an excellent documentary in that it sets the stage for our (American) policy makers to look at the health care system in other countries to see what they are doing right (and wrong) in this critical area; before our system implodes.