Julie Winkor: Bad Medicine

Bad Medicine: Ruthless Health Care Policy in America
By Julie Winokur
AlterNet

Collateral Damage: Bad Medicine in Tennessee, a new film by Julie Winokur, explores the single largest Medicaid cuts in history -- a failed "reform" attempt that left 170,000 people without care almost overnight.

When one of us hurts, all of us hurt. That's the message in Collateral Damage: Bad Medicine in Tennessee, a compelling 25-minute film by Julie Winokur of Talking Eyes Media. Collateral Damage captures the suffering caused by the single largest Medicaid cuts in history. It exposes the injustice of a ruthless health care policy that refuses to regulate the managed care organizations and puts people's lives at risk.

In 2005, when Governor Phil Bredesen of Tennessee announced he would reform his state's Medicaid program, people took him at his word. Little did they know that Bredesen's idea of reform meant cutting 170,000 people off the program almost overnight.

The size and speed of the cuts were unprecedented; the suffering they caused was immeasurable. The sickest, neediest people were denied medical care while the nation sat by and watched. Meanwhile, the Governor boasted to other heads of states about his success reigning in the rising cost of health care. This intense, moving film asks how, in the richest nation in the world, people can die every day because they lack access to health care.

To Watch the Trailer for the Documentary