Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare

Documentary. Directed by Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke. (PG-13. 99 minutes.)

The earnest and well-made documentary "Escape Fire" offers an X-ray of what's ailing the American health care system and prescribes a number of sensible solutions. That the movie largely sidesteps partisan politics will no doubt irk some viewers, but may just be its greatest strength.

The film is surprisingly optimistic, arguing that there are genuine, practical answers to many of the problems afflicting the system, and some are already being adopted.

The issues are familiar to anyone who pays even remote attention to the news: Americans are overly dependent on drugs, lead sedentary lives and often eat poorly; unnecessary tests and treatments are commonplace; primary-care physicians are being squeezed from all sides as dollars flow to specialists and expensive high-tech treatments; the health care industry is under enormous pressure to produce profits and is frighteningly efficient in lobbying against change.

Medical reporter Shannon Brownlee says that tens of thousands of Medicare recipients die each year from unneeded treatments. And Oregon's Dr. Erin Martin offers testimony from the front lines as she struggles with having less and less time to spend with her indigent patients, a situation that's replicated across the system.

The movie gives ample screen time to some familiar advocates for change: Dr. Andrew Weil, who says we need to shift our emphasis from disease intervention to disease prevention; and Dr. Dean Ornish, who urges personal lifestyle changes as a key to any serious reform. As an example of what such changes can achieve, we're given a look at Safeway's employee health program, which has helped the company trim costs.

The film is perhaps at its most compelling in recounting the story of combat veteran Sgt. Robert Yates, who became addicted to drugs prescribed to treat his post-traumatic stress disorder. Through the use of nontraditional treatments including acupuncture and meditation, Yates battles his way out of dependency. "Escape Fire" indicates that the U.S. military is looking seriously at this kind of alternative therapy.

The title, by the way, refers to a blaze set to allow smokejumpers to escape a wildfire, and suggests the kind of unconventional thinking that's needed to alter the health care system.

Go here to see the original:

'Escape Fire': Diagnosing health care ills