tonight on "nightline," michael's pain. it was a shocking scene. the king of pop on stage, his hair on fire. and now newly unearthed footage of that fateful accident. did this month fuel decades of addiction and ultimately lead to michael jackson's death? land of the fee. the "nightline" guide to how you're being nickeled and dimed to wherever you go. tonight, we take a tour of the sneaky fees to show you how to avoid them. plus, prescription for america. abc's dr. tim johnson goes head to head with president obama on the most critical issue facing the country, but can we afford his new healthcare plan?

captions paid for by abc, inc. good evening, i'm terry moran. and we begin tonight with new details in the death of michael jackson and an investigation that is increasingly pointed toward prescription drug abuse. law enforcement officials today continued to investigate the doctors who treated jackson. they're pouring over medical records and already they recovered narcotics from the home where he first fell into cardiac arrest. and now, there's a shocking raw in many ways may help connect at all the dots, a freak accident that struck jackson in the prime of his great career. and may have sent this bright star in a much darker direction. lisa fletcher has the report. ♪

>> it was is famous 1984 pepsi commercial that changed michael jackson's life forever. ♪ in this shocking just released "us weekly" video, we go behind the scenes and see for the very first time how the commercial went horribly wrong. f on the first take, the pyrotechnics exploded as planned. after jackson descended the stairs, with his trademark moves. but the sixth take went horribly wrong. the explosions went off too early. it looked like it was part of the show at first. >> kristen robinson a teenager at the time was at the taping. >> his hair was on fire, there was a lot going on. it became evident pretty quickly that it wasn't supposed to happen. >> unaware that his hair was on

fire, jackson kept dancing and spinning until the flames reached his scalp. >> and people started yelling, stop dancing, michael, you're on fire! >> dancers and crew members on hand rushed to jackson's aid to put out the flames. >> that's me in the black. that was me. >> so you were one of the people that got to him first? >> yes. >> darrell mays was one of the dancers in the commercial. what is it like watching this 25 years later? >> i'm in shock. >> jackson suffered second and third degree burns on his face and head. >> he was hauled off to a hospital and given demerol for the first time, which was the prescription drug he became hooked on and that he would stay hooked on throughout his life. >> those close to jackson believe that it was this event, 25 years ago, that began his addiction to pain kiers. ♪

jackson spoke about his dependency in 1993 after cancelling his dangerous tour. >> as you may already know after my tour ended i remained out of the country undergoing treatment for dependency on pain medication. this medication was initially prescribed for the excruciating pain that i was suffering after recent reconstructive surgery on my scalp. >> but despite that admission, it only continued until his untimely death last month. >> several people, his family and friends an advisers tried to get him to stop taking the drugs and he would never listen, and he would cut them off the minute they tried they'd no longer be around him. he wasn't an addict in the full textbook sense of the word. >> investigators descended yesterday on one of jackson's beverly hills doctors. >> we are looking for some

documentation. >> the l.a. coroner subpoenaed records from the dermatologist arnie klein hoping to piece together a paper tra of evidence from klein and others. >> we are not investigating the doctors, but we are investigating mr. michael jackson's death and we are contacting all of his doctors. >> abc news has obtained these exclusive photos. taken of jackson in 2002 with visible linear puncture marks along veins on his ales and . feset >> this is on a hidden part, not on his arms or hands so it's a common finding in people who are injecting drugs for illicit purposes. >> dr. goldberger says in his view there's no legitimate medical explanation for these punctures. >> these injection marks are all located just above the various veins on the leg and the shin and the foot. so there's easy access to the blood stream. >> yet n a rare interview, dr. klein told abc's diane sawyer when he treated jackson

he didn't see anything that would make him worry. >> but here's the problemh it michael. no matter what he wanted, someone would give it to him. >> in one of the most graphic photos jackson displays a huge wound on his right leg. >> the wound on the shin area of his leg is typical of someone who's injecting drugs on a regular basis. what happens is the tissue becomes severely infected. >> goldberger haso way of knowing what drugs were being injected but has some ideas. >> it may be the drugs like openuates, morphine, even heroin, for example, and these are drugs that are injected when people abuse and these medications. >> sources tell abc news that drug enforcement agents are talking to tee have a pharmaceuticals, the makers of the powerful hospital antiseptic, and they're lking at a specific lot of the drug

connected to the jackson death investigation. this is lisa fletcher for "nightline" in los angeles. >> so sad. the much anticipated final report from the coroner on jackson's death and what drugs may have played a part in his death that's expected as early as the week of july 27. you can read more about the video in "us weekly" this friday. thanks to lisa fletcher for that. when we come back, we'll talk about fees costing up to a thousand dollars a year. how do you fight back? welcome to the now network. population 49 million. right now, 1.5 million people are on a conference call. 750,000 wish they weren't. - ( phones chirping ) - construction workers are making 244,000 nextel direct connect calls. 1 million people are responding to an email. - 151 accidentally hit "reply all." - ( foghorn blows ) that's happeni now. america's most dependable 3g network

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not as sweet and they're adding up when family budgets are tight. for bill weir, enough is enough. >> the day begins with a fee. you see the utility company that powers the alarm clock and coffeemaker also charges 7 bucks a month for something called a merchant function charge. the charge associated with procurinelectricity, credit and collection related activities and uncollectible accounts. so i'm paying the power company to hunt down people who aren't paying the power company. i flip on t tv, which comes through a cable box i'm forced to rent for 6 bucks a month every month forever. off to a gym i'd like to quit, but that would cost me 200 bucks. i board an airline that charges a $10 booking fee. re a car that quoted me a cost of $39 a day, but it's really 60 bucks, thanks tohe customer facility charge.

i can't forget to call home. the phone company, that charges a regulatory recovery fee. i'm not making this up. that's what they charge to collect the other charges. just another day in america. land of the fee, home of the waiver. it's now a widely accepted business model in this country to sign you up and then trip you up with asterisks, and insidious charges. experts say that the average american is being nickelled and dimed to the tune of nearly $1,000 a year. well, it turns out there's a growing body of journalism on this very topic. led in part by a great book called "got you capitalism". written by bob. hi, bob. bob starts with what a columnist calls the tourist paradox. go on vacation, you don't speak the language or know the exchange rates so chances are you're charged more than the locals. not enough to make you call a

cop, just enough to fatten their till. >> $5. >> but in the age of global commerce, mega corporations are the locals and we're the tourists. and founded by the fine -- confounded by the fine print. >> if you have ten customers you can't cheat them all the time. if you have a million customers and you steal a dollar from them once a week, that's a good business. that's being done inside every major company in america right now. >> bob took me on a sneaky fee tour of lower manhattan, which requires cash, of course. >> the average consumer spends about a hundred dollars a year just for taking money from an atm. >> some would say they're providing a service -- >> and they do, which is fair. but with all the issues, the punishment and the crime do they fit? your bank going to charge you $3, so people are going to get charged 6 bucks for that. >> he advises using small banks

or credit unions which often waive the atm fees and after lunch, he warns me never to pay with a debit card, because they're never rejected if your balance gets too low. >> four or five years ago, if you didn't have the money in your account, it would be rejected. but now banks have overdraft courtesy and they'll charge you $30 to $40 for each additional transaction and banks collect $17 billion a year in courtesy erdraft fees. probably the single largest hidden fee in america. >> so we've been to wall street to discuss the most egregious offender which is the 401(k) accounts. our retirement accounts. >> on average, the average worker loses one third of the money they should have to wall street. they're expense ratios. you'll find out that somebody is taking between 22% of your money every year.

>> let's talk about cell phones. and handheld devices. this is another sore spot. >> the portable cash register we like to say. >> right. right. what's the biggest offender when it comes to these? >> premium text messages. most folks never heard of that. there's regular and there's premium text. >> fancier font? >> no, theylook exactly the same and they cost a dollar or two apiece. if you heard of a kid signing up for a ringtone service and their parents suddenly getting a $20 bill, that's the premium services. >> i went through the bills and see how they label the fees with official sounding names as if these are taxes they can't control. most of the time he says they're not. they are just fees which simply inflate the advertised price. >> the whole gotcha scheme has ruined price comparison. price is an important element of

our economy and i call it the death of the price tag. no one knows how much anything costs. >> even well intentioned companies get sucked into e practice because it's the only way to compete. >> intercontinental hotels experimented with up-front pricing. they advertised the hotel room and that's what you would pay, everything included. they lost all their customers to their competitors who were low balling pricing. >> the obvious fix is one set of rules for everyone, but given the lobbying strength of the big corporations and banks, stricter regulation and enforcement is easier said than done. so in the meantime, bob encourages us all to do our civic duty and complain. >> i think complaining is like voting. maybe it doesn't feel like it does any good, but if no one did it there wouldn't be any change. >> it has to be almost a symbolic protest, right? >> got to be worth the $9 fee

you're fighting. >> it's the principle. set ahead a half an hour month, pick off the cable and cell phone companies. in a 30-minute phone call can get rid of the fee that you don't deserve to pay. that's 100 dollars a year practically. no one can turn down money like that. >> -- press three. to return to the -- >> so with that in mind, time to stop being a tourist. for "nightline," i'm bill weir in new york. >> you know, on the offensive there, our thanks to him for that. when we come back, dr. tim goes head to head wi t he president. ñññññññññññññññññ (woman) i'm taking an antidepressant, but i think i might need more help. (announcer) approximately two out of three people being treated for depression still have depression symptoms. (man) i'm on an antidepressant, but i'm still not

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here in washington today, president obama sharpened his focus on the complicated issue of hethcare. practically there remain questions about treatment

options and how much they'll cost. politically there's disagreement among some democrats while some republicans are ready for a fight. our dr. tim johnson sat down with the president. >> while his supreme court nominee was being grilled by the senate, president obama was on an offensive to promote healthcare reform. >> so make no mistake, the status quo on healthcaris not an option for the united states of america. it's threatening the financial stability of families, of businesses and of government. >> and the democratic national committee released this ad today aimed at pressuring congress to get the job done. >> it's time. >> it's time. >> it's s time. >> it's time for health care reform. >> i asked the president earlier today who exactly will be charged with the important job of identifying waste within the healthcare system. >> what i proposed is that we have a panel of medical experts that are making determinations about what protocols are, you know, appropriate for what diseases. there's going to be some disagreement, but if there's

broad agreement that in this situation the blue pill works better than the red pill and it turns out the blue pill is half as expensive as the red pill, then we want to make sure that doctors and patients have that information available to them. then i think most patients and doctors don't want to spend money unnecessarily. >> there had been some progress on the hill earlier in the day when the senate health committee approved their version of a healthcare bill. the house democrats unveiled their proposal yesterday. both plans would require employers to cover employees or pay a penalty to the government. create a government-run insurance program to compete with private insurers and require americans to obtain health insurance giving subsidies to the poor to help them to do so. the house bill had another controversial feature. >> the house bill that came out yesterday proposed a so-called health benefits advisory committee.

a 25 people appointed mostly by you and the surgeon general who going to figure out what benefits will get paid for and what won't. most people hate the insurance companies, but they're worried about this new devil and how the decisions will be made. >> i think a lot of people are having bad experiences because they know that recommendations are coming from people who have a profit motive. now, if i've got a panel of doctors and experts whose only motivation is making sure we get the best bang for the buck from our healthcare, i think that's a situation that most americans would feel pretty good about. >> we talked about how his plan would impact doctors. >> so speaking of compensation leads me to another issue, we have to stop paying doctors and other providers for simply doing more, we have to pay them to think and have good outcomes. i'm a physician. i've lived in this culture for too many years, i know how hard it will be to change physician

thinking. how will you do that? >> we want to make sure we're incentivizing those places that do it better. so if a hospital is reducing readmission rates, then they get a bonus for that. now suddenly the hospital administrator starts getting his team together saying how do we make sure that patients are healthier? >> real healthcare reform can mean job loss, but president obama is confident in the sustainability and growth. >> keep in mind, healthcare is a growth industry because we're all getting older, as a population we're aging. the question is how are we deploying people? are we hiring somebody to spend all their time working on billing and figuring out whether somebody has insurance, and finding paper records that are hugely inefficient? or are we taking that same person and saying you're going to be working with the diabetic patient, calling them every month or so. to make sure that they're taking their medications and that they

are following procedures so that they don't end up with a foot amputation. those are equally important jobs. the problem is right now the growth industry is in doing the bureaucratic paperwork instead of the actual patient care. >> as usual, the president is trying to work fast. he's asked congressional leaders for final legislation to reach his desk just after labor day. a tall task indeed. i'm dr. timothy johnson for "nightline" in washington. >> so that means no doubt there's a lot of work ahead. thanks to dr. tim for that. when we come back, breaking news on a gasoline tanker hichw pl iodedn a fiery highway crash near detroit, collapsing part of an overpass. we have the dramatic pictures and the latest details.