Joanne Kenen - 

We saw a preview the other night of "Critical Condition" a new documentary that shows how for the uninsured, access to health care is too little, too late. The film will air on PBS's "Point of View" next Sept. 30, shortly before the presidential election, but before then filmmaker Roger Weisberg is screening it at town meetings and policy forums across the country. :

The structure is simple. The film follows four working Americans who are uninsured -- or who lost their insurance when they became too sick to work. Only one had a happy ending - an endearing chef who got extensive spinal surgery for free at a top medical center largely because a savvy and sympathetic doctor knew how to leverage the fact that a film crew was trailing his patient. The others didn't fare so well: one died, one had a lousy prognosis because of a late cancer diagnosis, and one was disabled.

The film goes beyond the familiar story line of mounting medical bills; it shows how insurance status itself affects access to care. Yes, as conservative foes of health reform point out, emergency rooms do have to take care of people. But emergency rooms don't control chronic liver disease, or administer chemotherapy, or straighten out diseased spines. Emergency rooms don't make a prosthesis for a diabetic who chose to have his foot amputated rather than spend months trying to cure an infection, because if he didn't get back to work soon, he wouldn't be insured. (He ended up unemployed and uninsured anyway).

 

The list of community screenings isn't finalized yet, but check back at http://www.amdoc.org/outreach_news.php, http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2008/criticalcondition/preview.html or http://pppdocs.com/

While you are watching, Weisberg asks that you keep this in mind: “During the 90-minute running time of this film, an additional 377 Americans will lose medical coverage.”