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The movie, Damaged Care, is based on my experiences as a physician struggling to create a more compassionate,
patient-centered health care system.
We are rarely moved by more data. However stories, especially those of real persons, touch us at our deepest
levels, often moving us to learn, speak, and act more for change. The stories in Damaged Care portray the timeless
and global tensions between cost and care, economics and ethics, and society and individual patients.
This film is now widely used nationally and internationally as an education tool for classes in medical,
health care, business and social ethics, as well as in seminars, training and study groups.
SPECIAL NOTE: After the consumer backlash against "managed care" in the late 90's, some persons in
the health insurance industry claim that the system has changed and the issues portrayed in the movie no longer occur.
However, I hear daily from patients and physicians who experience the same conditions dramatized in the movie and many others
that are worse in their effects. The work to balance cost and care is unending, as is the struggle to ensure that
health care is ethical, equitable, and compassionate. In this regard, the movie represents many attitudes, practices,
and challenges that may be universal and timeless for any health system. The drama of it keeps present the human
needs we all share.
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