Germany, Japan, Switzerland, Taiwan and U.K. will be compared

Jon Palfreman has heard all the objections to restructuring America's market-based health care system, but he's not buying them.

"People don't know much about what's going on around the world, but they tend to dismiss it as socialist or single-payer," said Palfreman, a documentary filmmaker who teaches broadcast journalism at the University of Oregon.

He set out to test those assumptions by examining the national health systems of other industrialized democracies. The result was "Sick Around the World," a "Frontline" documentary that explores medical care in Germany, Japan, Switzerland, Taiwan and the United Kingdom.

"In most of the countries we look at it's very similar to here," Palfreman said.

"You've got private physicians, you've got private hospitals, you've got private insurance, so it's delivered in a market - but it's not an unbridled market."

Palfreman will be on hand at 7 p.m. Thursday for a free screening of the 50-minute film at the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, 645 N.W. Monroe Ave. A discussion of state and national health care reform efforts will follow, and attendees are invited to bring popcorn or other snacks to munch on during the movie.

The event is sponsored by Mid-Valley Health Care Advocates and the Oregon chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program.

In doing research for "Sick Around the World," Palfreman said each system he looked at had different strengths and weaknesses, but they all had three things in common:

• A standard national pricing system for medical services.

• Mandatory insurance coverage for all citizens.

• A not-for-profit health insurance rate structure.

Palfreman also said that all the countries profiled in the film spend a smaller percentage of gross domestic product on health care than the United States but do a better job in many categories of health care delivery.

"It's very difficult to argue against the quality of innovation in American medicine … but you measure a health system by how it does those other, basic things as well," Palfreman said.

"If you're uninsured, you might as well be living in a poor country."

Bennett Hall can be reached at 758-9529 or bennett.hall@lee.net.

At a glance

WHAT: Free screening of "Sick Around the World," a documentary on five countries' approach to health care, followed by a discussion of U.S. reform efforts with filmmaker Jon Palfreman

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Thursday

WHERE: Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, 645 N.W. Monroe Ave.

ETC.: Bring your own snack