Money-Driven Medicine—N.Y. Premiere of Film, June 11
Many of you know Maggie Mahar who comments regularly on this blog and has one of her own.
She is also the author of "Money Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much."
Now here is something to be impressed by, Maggie's book has been made into a movie!
Here is a recent post from her blog, Health Beat, with an open invitation from Maggie to all you health care wonks out there to attend the premiere:
Money-Driven Medicine—N.Y. Premiere of Film, June 11
At last, Money-Driven Medicine is finished. This 90-minute documentary was produced by Alex Gibney, best known for his 2005 film, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room and his 2007 Academy Award Winning documentary, Taxi to the Dark Side.
The film was directed by Andy Fredericks, and is based on my book, Money-Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much (Harper Collins).
The Century Foundation and the New York Society for Ethical Culture are co-hosting the New York premiere on June 11, 7p.m. at the New York Society for Ethical Culture, 2 West 64th Street at Central Park West. Doors open at 6:30. Admission is free. If you’re planning to attend, please RSVP Loretta Ahlrich, ahlrich@tcf.org or (212) 452-7722 so that we can have a rough idea of how many people will be coming.
Alex Gibney will be there to talk about the film, and following the screening, I’ll take questions from the audience about healthcare and healthcare reform.
About the Film
Money-Driven Medicine explores how a profit-driven health care system squanders billions of health care dollars, while exposing millions of patients to unnecessary or redundant tests, unproven, sometimes unwanted procedures, and over-priced drugs and devices that, too often, are no better than the less expensive products they have replaced. As I have said on this blog, this isn’t just a waste of money. It’s ‘hazardous waste’—waste that is hazardous to our health.
In remarkably candid interviews both doctors and patients tell the riveting, sometimes funny, and often wrenching stories of a system where medicine has become a business. “We are paid to do things to patients,” says one doctor. “We are not paid to talk to them.”
Patients,and physicians star in the film. They include Dr. Don Berwick, author of Escape Fire and founder of the Institute for Health Care Improvement , and Dr. Jim Weinstein, Director of Dartmouth’s Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. ( Dr. Jack Wennberg, the founder of what I often refer to as “the Dartmouth Research” passed the torch to Weinstein in 2007.)
Lisa Lindell, a HealthBeat reader, patient advocate and author of 108 Days, also appears in the documentary, talking about her husband’s experience in a Texas hospital after he was seriously burned in a freak industrial accident. .
How Physicians Inspired Money-Driven Medicine
I narrate the film, and in the course of the narration, recall how the story began:
“When I started writing the book, I began phoning doctors, explaining the project, and asking for interviews. To my great surprise the majority of them returned my calls. In most cases, I didn’t know them. I expected responses from perhaps 20 percent. Instead, four out of five called back.
“‘We want someone to know what is going on,’ explained one prominent physician in Manhattan. ‘But please don’t use my name. You have to promise me that. In this business, the politics are so rough—it would be the end of my career.’”
They were right. Everyone needs to know.
5 comments:
Blame, blame, blame! Does anyone realize there would be NO health care without doctors?
Health care reform needs to start with Medicaid. Welfare rolls need to be weeded out for fraud. Welfare recipients on Medicaid drive up government costs by being enabled to obtain medical care at will, going to the inner-city ER in droves for a cold instead of their local clinic. Alternatively,24/7 clinics should be available for screening. The savings from Welfare and Medicaid fraud on the part of recipients could be enormous.
Malpractice lawsuits have driven the cost of health care sky-high. Doctors & hospitals have had to protect themselves by ordering tests. Cost of insurance is astronomical and settlements should be capped, as in Indiana & other states, and hopefully will also limit frivilous lawsuits brought by unscrupulous lawyers.
Savings to doctors and hospitals would be significant.
Pharmaceutical companies should be required to spread the cost of research throughout the world. It is discriminatory that only the U.S. is paying the frieght for their R & D. driving the cost of meds to hospitals, doctors and patients through the roof. This would represent enormous savings for health care in the U.S.
Welfare/Medicaid reform, insurance reform and pharmaceutical research will not be considered in health care proposals because these areas are 'politically incorrect' and/or have strong lobbies in D.C. To the detriment of the public, reform is being politically motivated.
The "46 million uninsured" is blatantly misleading. Included are many millions in their 20's and 30's who are healthy and choose to have other priorities. There are 10million plus illegals who would not be here if Immigration did its job - why are we responsible for those who break our laws, though they represent a large potential voter coalition? There are some who are wealthy enough to pay for service and chose to take the risk themselves. So who supplied the 46 million figure?
The people most in need are those with pre-existing conditions who are uninsurable. State of Illinois has a pool of such people who are covered on a rotating basis by all companies licensed in the state to spread risk evenly, and subsidized depending on means test. Why couldn't this be mandated in every state?
Other groups in need are the self-
employed, independent contractors and the temporarily un-employed who can't join an affordable plan. Each state should set up a group plan for these folk, similar to the Illinois pre-existing conditions concept, using all licensed insurers on a rotating basis, with subsidies - federal and/or state - depending on a means test.
Bottom line, a better estimate is probably about 10-15 million legitimate uninsureds, a far cry from the total publicized, every one of which can be covered by state and/or fed groups, subsidized as needed.
Why would this country chance any drastic change to our quality health care delivery? To follow inferior European and Canadian models,taxpayers will be paying 50-60% in taxes. The same money is needed from the taxpayer one way or the other. Let's take the first steps I outlined above?
The dialogue needs to look at the big picture before making the hard decisions. I trust that will happen.
I don't know about blame - nor really care - but our system needs reforming. Here's a small example: I need blood drawn for a lab test so I look on my insurer's website and see that there are 2 places I could go in my neighborhood. So I call the insurer to find out which would be cheaper. Their answer: "We are contractually prohibited from giving out that information." I have to admit that I didn't try, but I bet I couldn't find anyone at either of the 2 labs who could give me that information either since it depends on a complicated claim adjudication system with negotiated discounts, etc. Basically, many if not most of us have no ability to know the costs upfront in the case of most of our healthcare services.
How and when can we see this film?? It sounds great.
Bob--
Thanks very much for letting people know about the premiere.
The film isn't about "blaming" doctors-- many of the stars of the film Are doctors, talking about tne enormous waste in our system.
Drug-makers and device-makers promote expensive new products without providing evidence that they are any more effective than the older products they are replacing.
Hospitals authorize unnecessary tests and too often provide end-of-life care that provides neither comfort nor cure. Rather than providing palliative care, the patient is left to die in an ICU-- the most expensive and usually the loneliest way to die.
Doctor perform tests and recommend procedures that too often are unneeded or ineffective--they don't have the comparative effectivness reserach they need to know what works best for which patients.
Even when the information exists (and often it does) it's not organized in a way that is readily accessible.
There will be screenings all around the country and the DVD will be available for sale . I'll be posting dates and places on my blog www.healthbeatblog.org and I'll post a notice about how readers can buy DVDs.
Thanks again to Bob
First, I will note that Maggie Mahar seems to have excluded me from her blog, apparently because she didn't like my view that doctors are overpaid. (Not just my view, also Paul Krugmans!)
This suggests to me that she is not really open to a range of ideas. She seems to desire to limit the debate. Not a good approach for a journalist. So no, I won't be seeing her movie.
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