Escape Fire: The Fight To Rescue American Healthcare is a movie documentary that has been called the definitive film on American Healthcare. It’s a movie documentary that takes a sobering look at how healthcare works in America. This movie documentary has received numerous awards. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012. It also played at the Virginia Film Festival right here in Charlottesville and won the Audience Award for best Documentary Film. Escape: Fire The Fight To Rescue American Healthcare. It went on to air on CNN this past March. It is available on ITunes, Video On Demand, & DVD.
It’s a Metaphor
The title “Escape Fire” is a metaphor for unconventional solutions to problems that are either so obvious or so counter-intuitive that they are missed. So as relates to healthcare – “escape fires” are the solutions that we are overlooking that could help eliminate some of the challenges we face in healthcare.
We have had ENOUGH!
One of the trailers for this film opens with a guy yelling “we have had enough!” and over the course of the film, you get a lot of statistics:
- The average per capita cost of healthcare in the developed world is $3,500. In the U.S. it’s around $8,000. Despite this higher level of spending, the United States does not achieve better outcomes on many important health measures. [Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development]
- In 2010, the US spent $2.5 trillion on healthcare. Yet, 75% of healthcare costs go to diseases that are preventable.
- 30% of healthcare costs (roughly $750 million annually) are wasted and do not improve health. [Institute of Medicine]
- Around 187,000 people die each year from medical errors and hospital acquired infections. Based on these numbers it would be the 3rd leading cause of death. Just after heart disease and cancer. [Health Affairs/Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]
- If trends continue through 2020, up to 1/5 of healthcare spending, or up to $1 trillion annually would be devoted to treating the consequences of obesity. [RAND]
- 20% of patients account for 80% of costs. [Department of Health and Human Services]
Stop Kidding Yourself It’s not Healthcare, It’s Disease Management
The thing that makes me most passionate about this movie is the thought provoking way it encourages you to look at healthcare.
We don’t have a healthcare delivery system in America, we have a disease management system and in many aspects, that disease management system operates for PROFIT.
When an American corporation operates for profit, by law they have to serve the interests of their shareholders. When shareholders make money from how much disease there is to be treated – then what would be the TRUE motivation to actually stamp out any disease? As a matter of fact, wouldn’t the optimal health condition for entities that profit from treating disease be one that perpetuates a system of chronic disease that is never cured and becomes a revolving door for managing “medical problems”, many of which are completely preventable?
Are you in the revolving door?
It’s a system that doesn’t want you do get well and doesn’t want you to die – it just wants you to keep coming back.
The movie features a lot of doctors who have strong perspectives about the healthcare system. And it really helped me to come to terms with what I believe as a physician.
Health Is Wealth
I believe in the ancient wisdom that says: When health is absent, wisdom cannot reveal itself, art cannot manifest, strength cannot fight, wealth becomes useless, and intelligence cannot be applied.
Optimal Health
I believe that optimal health involves dealing with the whole person – mind, body and spirit, not breaking up the individual into different parts.
Primary Care begins with YOU
I believe that Primary Care begins with YOU, not your doctor. You have got to be interested and concerned for your own health. That’s really where it starts. I can’t want good health for you more than you want it for yourself.
On Preventable Death
I have seen a multitude of deaths that come too soon from diseases and conditions that were completely preventable and this really saddens me – the instances where people are dying when they don’t have to.
On Death as Agreement between Person & Creator
I have also seen deaths that come appropriately according to the agreement that was set between that patient and the creator but sometimes to the emotional, passionate objections of loved ones who want everything done in spite of the expense and futility of my efforts to “save them.”
Join The Conversation
In addition to these things – I believe that there are many things about the healthcare system that need to change. And believe that it is going to take everyone coming together to talk about it.
