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 explo

dr. tim johnson talks with the president. >>> battle report. our reporter is with the marines as they engage in close combat with the taliban in afghanistan. >>> right to die? the deaths of a prominent british couple raise new questions about assisted suicide. >>> up in flames. "us magazine" obtains never before seen video of michael jackson catching on fire. >>> and remarkable research on the ability to remember, even >>> and remarkable research on the ability to remember, even things that occur before birth. captions paid for by abc, inc. >>> good evening. president obama's sport is basketball, and he is now putting on a full-court press for health care reform. he got a boost today when a key senate committee passed one version of reform legislation, but the committee vote was 13-10. 13 democrats in favor, 10 republicans against. the president says he wants bipartisan support for reform, but so far, he's not getting it. and now there are some in his own party expressing skepticism. jonathan karl is on capitol hill. >> i move to report the bil

the patient, kiplee johnson, daughter of our own dr. tim., kiplee, a busy, working mom, thought she had a simple stomach bug. >> it was at work that i was really feeling miserable. a lot of nausea. some stomach pains that were sort of generalized. so, i didn't really think much of it at the time. >> she thought maybe it was gas pains. well, it could be food you ate. it could be a virus. let's see what happens in the next 24 hours. that's how i first heard about it. >> reporter: in fact, what was happening inside kiplee, something of a ticking timebomb. by the next day, she felt it was serious enough to see a doctor. >> she was really pretty miserable. >> reporter: dr. megan ston, the pain was in her lower right side. the doctor suspected immediately what was wrong. >> by the way she was moving, she looked like what we learned back in medical school. this is the classic appendicitis patient. >> rorter: many of us think, appendicitis is something younger people get. but appendicitis can happen at any age. it's an inflammation of the appendix.

dr. tim johnson, interesting. the president had been pressing over and over and over again that he wants this health care reform done, a bill passed many the house and senate, prior to conference committee. wants that done by the august recess. everything indicates it's not going to get done. and as the president said at the end of his statement, we will do it this year. he seems to be sliding on that deadline. anyway, we're going to return you now to regular programming. for some of you in the west, "world news" is coming up. you can get much more at abcnews.com and a complete write up on "nightline." i'm charles gibson in new york, and i hope you have a good night. >>> this has been an abc news night. >>> this has been an abc news special. captions by vitac

dr. tim johnson joins us. we heard there are 160 million people on the priority list, but only enough full doses for about 60 million people. that leaves a lot of people unprotected. >> well, so much depends on what we learn during the testing, during the next two months. it will be tested at two different levels of strength. each of the levels with one or two doses. we may learn that a single dose is significant for some people. yumshy you need two dose said when you're producing a new strain of vaccine in younger people. older people may only need a single dose. >> is there a concern, though, that so many people on the priority list will not be first in line? in fact will have to wait? >> t there is a concern, especially if we have to do two doses in everyone. we need to remind people that there are other strategies to prevent getting the flu, washing hands, covering your mouth when coughing. these strategies are very helpful. >> and how certain can people be the vaccine is safe given the rush to get it made

dr. tim johnson. >> reporter: around one in six parents say they have a child who finds it difficult to get to sleep. researchers studied the daytime activity and sleep patterns of hundreds of 7-year-olds by giving them activity monitors to wear for 24 hours. they found that children with the highest levels of activity during the day fell asleep the most quickly at night. but every hour spent in sedentary activity increased the time it took children to fall asleep by an average of three minutes. in addition, children who took longer to fall asleep, slept for shorter amounts of time. the study points to the importance of activity, not only for physical fitness, but also for healthy sleep, which is critical for many aspects of well-being, including overall brain health. with this medical minute, i'm dr. timothy johnson. >>> now the forecast certified baltimore's most accurate. here is chief meteorologist norm lewis and maryland's most powerful doppler radar. >> terry, before we get into the weather, i've got something i'd like to plug. if you're a motorcycle rider, everybody knows i ride a bi

dr. tim johnson about one way he could try to control costs.anel of medical experts deciding on protocols for diseases, instead of insurance companies. >> i think a lot of people out there are having bad experiences because they know that recommendations are coming from people who have a profit motive. >> reporter: and president obama will meet with two, key senate moderates today, ben nelson, the democrat of nebraska, and olympia snowe, republican from maine. he needs their support to get this through the senate. robin? >> jake, thank you. >>> let's bring in our medical editor, dr. tim johnson, who is in d.c., more of his interview with the president. and, tim, president obama and others say, the long run, we're going to save money while expanding coverage. as you know, many are skeptical about that statement. >> i think the one thing obama would say for sure, is that if we do nothing, the dramatic increase in costs that we are now having every year will continue unabated. what he hopes is, that we will slow down at least that increase in cost

dr. tim johnson in here to take us through them. dr. ys a pleasure to have you on the show. >> thank you, chris. >> all right. let's look at this first one which can a little surprising. alcohol, you would think always bad. but now there's a new study that says two alcoholic beverages a day could reduce the risk of alzheimer's in the elderly. what do you think. >> they followed a group of 3,000 elderly people, 75 or older who did not have alzheimer's and followed them over a six-year period and looked at the correlation between drinking and their risk of developing alzheimer's and they found that those who drank one to two drinks a day over that period actually reduced their risk of developing alzheimer's by about 40%. now, i have to stress that people who drank more actually increased their risk so we're talking about truly moderate directing here may have this added benefit. we foe it might also be helpful to the heart so i'm not recommending people start drinkingng for this purpose butf they're drinking safely at that level it may hav