Money Driven Medicine (2009)

Larry Altman alerted us to this ninety minute "documentary [which] provides the essential introduction Americans need to become knowledgeable participants in healthcare reform, now and in the years ahead. Produced by Academy Award winner Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side; Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room) and based on Maggie Mahar's acclaimed book, Money Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much, the film offers a behind-the-scenes look at how our 2.6 trillion dollar a year healthcare system went so terribly wrong and what it will take to fix it. 2009

The U.S. spends twice as much per person on healthcare as the average developed nation, fully one-sixth of our GDP - yet our outcomes, especially for chronic diseases, are very often worse. What makes us different? The U.S. is the only industrialized nation that has chosen to turn medicine into a largely unregulated, for-profit business."

“Money-Driven Medicine is one of the strongest documentaries I have seen in years and could not be more timely. The more people who see and talk about it, the more likely we are to get serious and true health care reform.” Bill Moyers. Trailer

The cartoon PIG, stands for "Pharmaceutical Company Giant" and was drawn by retired Mad Man, Gene Blasen from Borth Bennington, Vermont.

We just saw this film. It is brilliant and extraordinarily important. It should be available in a few months and will likely be shown on PBS stations.  Here are my Notes on MDM.