tonight on "worldfocus" -- >> after the president's speech to congress, we will show you the british view of the american health care debate, how they see it. as the debate rages in this country about treating illegal immigrants, we will take you to a place in south america where all foreigners get medical care, no questions asked. soul searching after that raid by british forces in afghanistan rescued a "new york times" reporter but resulted in the death of an afghan journalist. and our signature series on women in the muslim world. they wanted to play just like the men. how these turkish women formed a league of their own.

>> from the world's leading reporters and analysts, here's what's happening from around the world. this is "worldfocus." made possible in part by the following funders -- major support has also been provided by the peter g. peterson foundation, dedicated to promoting fiscal responsibility and addressing key economic challenges facing america's future. good evening. i'm daljit dhaliwal. the day after president obama's speech on health care reform, we thought that it would be useful to look at the issue tonight from a different perspective. global health care, of course, is one of our core issues here on "worldfocus." so we wondered, how is the american debate being reported overseas, particularly in a country that has a long history of universal health care?

that country is the united kingdom. and tonight, we want to show you how our partner there, itn, framed its coverage leading up to president obama's speech. how they, in effect, see us. lindsey hilsum's report on america's struggle with health care is our lead focus tonight and it begins in erie, pennsylvania. >> cardiac arrest, an elderly man in urgent need of treatment at the hospital in erie as in all american hospitals, by law, they have to treat anyone who shows up in the emergency room, whether they have health insurance or not. >> more people working and don't have insurance or lose their jobs and don't have insurance. and they get sick and they present themselves to us but it's not economically sustainable. >> the free clinic in nearby cleveland, the last resort of the uninsured. people like miles stevens whose diabetes was treated too late.

the reform being proposed but created government insurance schemes to drive down costs. but opponents say that wouldn't only be unfair competition but the first step on the road to socialism. a message that's got through to some of the uninsured themselves. >> i don't know about the government controlling it. that's a little scary to me, as far as like socialism and stuff, things like that. >> up the road, the cleveland clinic provides the best of american health care. it looks more like a hotel than a hospital. one of america's top cardiologists showed me around. opponents say universal health care coverage would lower the standard he says the cost isn't the technology but the administration of private insurance claims. >> we're spending 17% of our gross national product on health u are in the uk.ess healthy than we don't live as long. on most metrics -- >> but you can get care in this

cardiology unit you can't get in britain. >> right. so i want to have the best of both worlds and i believe it is possible. we have to eliminate waste. if we don't spend 29% of every dollar on administrative costs for our health insurance programs, that money can be used to maintain the standard of care. >> in the cardiac unit, the da vinci robot performs hard surgery. the machine costs almost $2 million. president obama must convince americans that his reform will retain this high technology and provide insurance to more people. but a cost the country can afford. lindsey hilsum, channel 4 news, cleveland, ohio. if you saw president obama's speech last night, then you will recall that outburst by one republican who accused the president of lying when he said democratic proposals would not cover illegal immigrants. as we continue our look at how

other countries provide health care, we want to take you to argentina, which provides care for all, including foreigners. that story tonight from teresa bo of al jazeera english. >> this is a common scene in argentina's public hospitals. this woman came from peru and is still an illegal resident. in spite of her status, argentine public health care system is a universal right and anyone, in spite of nationality, status or income, has the right to be treated. dr. jose lanes is the director of the fernandez hospital in buenos aires. he says he's proud of argentina's will to treat everyone. >> we have buses that come from the neighboring countries filled with people that need to be taken care of. we perform complex surgeries like cardiovascular surgery, but also basic treatment. the system was thought of when argentina was a rich country decades ago.

>> in argentina, the public health care system is mostly used by those who cannot afford to pay a private insurance. and it is financed through taxes. this hospital treats argentinean and non-argentineans for free and in exactly the same way. but many here are saying that argentina is a poor country and cannot subsidize the health of patients coming from neighboring countries. most argentineans believe the public system has a serious structural deterioration and inefficiency. many patients have to wait for hours and even days to get treated. over the last few years, immigration from other latin american nations has increased sharply and that's created a perception among some here that public health care is being overused by foreigners. we found this argentinean man outside another hospital. >> there are things missing that shouldn't be missing. i had three surgeries in this

hospital, and there are no doctors, no medicines. the government should ask the government of bolivia to open up their own place. they come here because they know it's for free. >> but those who study argentina's health system say it's unfair to blame foreigners for all the problems. >> public sector capacity has been decreasing over the years which also means less funding for it and a priority in other areas of health, namely drugs, pharmaceuticals, which is excessive, and the private sector which tries to encroach on the amount of money available. >> but those coming from abroad say they're thankful for the treatment they receive because in spite of the problems in the system, they're still able to get treatment that in their countries they could not afford. teresa bo, al jazeera, buenos aires. >> for more on health care around the world, we are joined

by victor rodwin, a professor of health policy and management at the wagner school at new york university. professor rodwin often writes about health care in other countries. welcome to "worldfocus." >> thank you very much. >> how is the u.s. health care debate being perceived overseas? do people in the rest of the world understand why it is provoking such strong reaction here? >> i think people are perplexed. they don't understand this notion of government-run health care from the point of view of our debate, not least the notion that government bureaucrats would be making clinical decisions. i think they don't understand it in britain and i think -- i know more about this. they don't understand it in france. i spoke with a journalist from there last night. they love obama. they thought he was going to do great change and they don't understand this popular reaction against the health plan based on a notion of a government takeover.

>> what does the term socialized medicine mean to a european? >> socialized medicine means medicine both financed and provided by the state with the outlaw of any private sector whatsoever. there are very few cases of socialized medicine in the world today. certainly even in britain which has a national health service that is not socialized medicine because you have a private sector, you have a supplementary private insurance sector and you have extraordinary clinical autonomy. in france, even less than in britain, you have nothing resembling socialized medicine. you have national health insurance which is just like medicare for all. medicare in the united states is not socialized medicine. medicare in the united states is public financing with private provision. >> so could any of these countries that you've been describing be used as a model for the health care system in the united states? >> france represents an interesting model because there is a large private sector.

there is a tradition of rugged individualism. at the same time, there's a tradition of social solidarity, so that everyone is covered under a universal health insurance plan and yet the provision is largely an office-based private service practice, something we know well in the united states. in france, they regard our group practices, our hmos as something resembling more socialized types of medicine. but one has to remember that under national health insurance systems, the physicians are fiercely autonomous and fiercely dispute and value their individual relationships with their patients. clinical decisions are not made by the state, neither in britain nor in france nor in the united states under the medicare program. >> okay, victor rodwin, thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you very much for having me. >> we also want to get yr view. our question tonight is, are you convinced that health care in the united states is as good as

that in other developed countries? you can tell us what you think by going to the "how you see it" section on the home page of our website at worldfocus.org. in iraq today, a suicide truck bomber attacked a kurdish village in the northern part of the country. it happened in wardek, not far from the city of mosul just after midnight, flattening a neighborhood. at least 19 people were killed and 30 others were wounded. security forces fired on the truck but the driver still detonated his bomb. the driver of another truck was killed before he was able to set off a second device. kurdish lawmakers demanded for the government to step up security. in afghanistan, that british commando raid that freed a british "new york times"

reporter yesterday has led to some second-guessing about the raid as well as whether the team the area in the first place.en the operation took place in kunduz province in northern afghanistan where the journalists were abducted as they looked into last week's deadly bombing of two fuel trucks. while the "times" reporter stephen farrell was rescued, an afghan journalist who was serving as his interpreter was killed. andrew thomas of itn looks at the fallout. >> initially it seemed heroic and necessary. but questions are being asked about whether the raid to rescue a british journalist and his afghan colleague was wise. and whether the journalists have been reckless in putting themselves in danger in the first place. this is what they had initially come to see, the site of a nato attack on a fuel tanker which had been hijacked by the taliban. overnight, stephen farrell had written an account of his ordeal in which he defends the decision

to make the trip. on "the new york times" website he admits that when he and afghan journalist sultan munadi first got near the site of the nato attack, sultan began talking to the police and gleaned it was not safe to go off the main highway to the site. but the following day, they went anyway. i checked with sultan and the driver to see if they felt safe going there. and they said it seemed all right. at the riverbank where the destroyed fuel tankers were, the journalists began interviewing locals. they were initially keen to talk. but as time passed, we grew nervous. i do not know how long we were there but it was uncomfortably long. i am comfortable with the decision to go to the riverbank but i fear we spent too long there. stephen farrell and sultan mud munadi were both taken by the taliban and moved around for four days before british forces mounted their rescue raid. during it, thefghan journalist, a british special forces soldier and unknown number of locals were killed.

but with speculation negotiations were under way that may hapeaceful outcome should the raid have been sanctioned. afghan journalists are angry by what they perceive as a botched job. at sultan munadi's house this morning this kabul, colleagues gathered to mourn his death. >> they resorted in military action before exhausting other nonviolent means. >> so a british journalist rescued but an afghan one and a soldier lost. here's a sign of how times have changed in russia. they are going to make a once-banned literary masterpiece required reading for high school students. the book is alexander sozhenitsyn's "gulag

archipelago" which chronicles the horrors of the soviet prison camp system set up under the dictator josef stalin. some commentators note that the move comes at a time when the popularity of russia's communist party is increasing and may be aimed at countering that trend. in the middle east, there is something they aren't going to be learning any time soon. schools run by the united nations in the gaza strip were considering including the holocaust as part of this year's curriculum. but the idea was put on hold when some palestinians protested the idea. denial of the holocaust is still copalestinian territories where some apparently fear that acknowledging the genocide would diminish their claims to an independent state. the schools in question are run by the united nations relief and works agency, unrwa, which also provides aid for palestinian refugees throughout the middle east. we want to get more on this issue tonight from andrew whitley. the director of the agency's new york office.

welcome to the program. >> thank you. >> give us some context. why did the agency want to add the holocaust to this year's curriculum? >> what we wanted to do is to deepen an understanding of the origins of the declaration of human rights. we have been teaching human rights in all our schools and of our own volition, i should add, since 2002, three years before the united nations introduced its holocaust education resolution suggesting that all children should be taught the origins of the subject. so we've been doing this for sometime. but we felt it was necessary apart from teaching the basic principles of human rights and conflict resolution, peaceful co--existence, and so on, that children should understand the context and understand where did the universal declaration come from and the holocaust is part of that story. >> why has it been put on hold? >> hamas authorities as you correctly reported have been protesting about it and they deny the holocaust existed on the scale that it did.

they also claim that it's a pretext to deny palestinian rights or to provide a justification for israel's expansionism or israel's presence in the region. we firmly reject that. we completely disagree with any holocaust denial statements that come from the local authorities. but we're in a position in which hamas is the de facto authority as everyone knows in gaza, and they've also been inclined to exercise their influence through the use of force if necessary. and we are a humanitarian agency trying to teach 200,000 children with palestinian teachers who are very vulnerable to a great deal of pressure. >> right. are you in a position -- shouldn't your agency be standing up to the hamas authorities? >> in principle, we should be introducing the courses and programs of the united nations. and of course we should be able to do that. but i think you need to

understand the context of this and listeners should, that we are trying to introduce the basic principles of the universal declaration in a particularly difficult and highly politicized, highly charged political environment. and hamas is showing itself to be increasingly intolerant. so for the moment, things are on hold. >> and is the holocaust taught by other united nations agencies throughout the region? >> no. we're the only one who actually run schools in the region. we have 500,000 children in our school systems in jordan, syria, lebanon, west bank and gaza. it's not just in the palestinian territories that israel occupies at the moment. but what we're doing is introducing it as a compulsory part of the curriculum elsewhere to make sure there is a full understanding of where the universal declarations come from. >> andrew whitley, thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you.

finally tonight, our signature segment, the final chapter of our original series on women in the muslim world. tonight we look at an activity that most of us take for granted, the desire to play soccer. as youngsters here, boys and girls often play together on coed teams and later young women often play in their own leagues. that is not the way it has been in turkey, an overwhelmingly muslim country where women have had to break new ground to play the sport they love. "worldfocus" producer gizem yarbil who is turkish herself, returned home and went to one become more than just a game. >> this girl has been playing soccer since she was a little girl. she was only 5 when she first

picked up a ball. that was nearly 20 years ago. but growing up in turkey as a girl who was crazy about soccer was not easy. in much of turkey, playing soccer is something girls just don't do. >> i was playing soccer with guys on the streets, much older guys. i didn't even know that there was something like women's soccer. but i wanted to play so much and i never lost that ambition. >> part of the resistance to women playing soccer is religious. turkey is over 99% muslim and a lot of people object to the sight of women in shorts and t-shirts in public. part of it is cultural. some believe the sport is simply too physical for women to play. >> people say, oh, you play soccer? maybe we should play you. they make fun of us. to them, we're just women. >> now she is hoping to tear down that prejudice. she is a rising star in a new women's professional soccer

league formed in turkey just a year ago. for an 18-game season, she will make around $6,000 for doing what she loves best. what does your family think about you playing soccer? >> they didn't like me playing with guys. so when i joined the women's team, they said at least she'll stop doing that. and now they're really happy. they can't stop telling everyone about what i'm doing. >> she plays for the team from the city of sakarya. the season is winding down and this day is a big day for sakarya. sakarya's main rival is a team from another city, also plays today. if they lose and sakarya wins, sakarya will take over first place in the league. sakarya is in a southern city, playing the women's team there. but in the stands keeping a tab on the score is the team's manager and founder, sinan panta.

panta used to play for the men's professional team in sakarya. when his career ended, he decided to form a women's team after being encouraged by several local women. it was not an easy task. sakarya is known as a hotbed of religious orthodoxy and the backlash was immediate. >> sakarya is a very conservative place. they ran headlines asking, are you a pervert? there was a lot of unfair criticism. unfortunately there's still pressure from parents. there's pressure from society. should girls do this? should girls do that? and that's why women often can't get ahead. >> in order to find players, panta had to go door to door convincing families to let their daughters join the team. his pitch? soccer is not just a game, but a ticket to a better life.

this is a forward for sakarya. >> my dad didn't want me to play. so manager sinan promised my dad he'd get me into school. now i'm going to school for sports management. manager sinan has kept all his promises. now my dad even started coming to the games. >> sinan and the team have also found another way to win over conservative turks -- win games. in fact, sakarya is so good, several of its players have been tapped to represent turkey in international competition. >> when you put players on the national team and send players to university, parents who had doubts will change their minds. but i never took the criticism to heart. for me, the reward is when former players tell me, thanks to you, i've become a teacher today. thanks to you, i make money today. >> in sakarya, sometimes thousands of fans come to games. this crowd, an away game for

sakarya, is a lot smaller. this woman's daughter is a player for the opposing team. >> she's been playing since she was a kid but we didn't like it. at one point, we couldn't deal with it anymore. so her gym teacher suggested letting her join the team. girl's soccer wasn't that common, but now that it's starting to spread, we've decided to accept it. >> the opportunities for women to play may be improving. but party with the -- but parity with the men is still far away. life as a woman professional soccer player in turkey is tough. money is a constant worry. the team made a grueling 12-hour overnight bus ride to the game because they couldn't afford to fly. at the game, a bathroom at a playground next to the field doubles as a locker room. the team spends most of its time in the hotel. almost all the players are single and allowing them to go out on their own would be considered improper in some conservative cities.

it's the sense of mission that often keeps the team going. >> i think women can do anything. and god doesn't give this kind of talent to everyone. as women, we have this willpower and it will grow bigger and the girls of turkey will follow. >> as for sakarya, on this day, it wasn't meant to be. sakarya tied this game while its main rival won. that means sakarya will remain in second place. nonetheless, each game is a victory, according to the team captain. >> when i was young, there were people i looked up to. now young girls are looking up to us. they say, i want to be like them. that's a good thing. it makes me happy. >> i'm gizem yarbil reporting for "worldfocus" from turkey. >> if you missed any of our original reports this week on women in the muslim world, you can find them all on our website

at worldfocus.org. and that is our program for this thursday evening. i'm daljit dhaliwal in new york. thank you for joining us. we hope to see you back here at the same time tomorrow night. until then, have a great the same time tomorrow night. until then, have a great evening. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com "worldfocus" is made possible in part by the following funders -- major support has also been provided by the peter g. peterson foundation, dedicated to promoting fiscal responsibility and addressing key economic challenges facing america's future.