Damaged Care

This is one movie that is in the range of HBO's 'WIT', or 'And the Band Played On.' Showtime has done a very wonderful, and extremely honest play on Linda Peeno, backed by a very good cast she puts on an act that makes you really feel that she is a woman torn by ethics and family and career. Like the other films mentioned this is not only a wonderful play, but a commentary on the state in which we live in as a society. This film make you think that would you do the same, have the same convictions to do what is right. This is a Emmy contender. Too bad it cannot be an Oscar nominated movie. Watch this movie, and bring your friends to see this. Bring Grandma, she would like it too.

This movie wasn't a blockbuster though it did make an important point about US health care with its rising cost and declining quality. This made for TV movie portrays an honorable doc called to be the hatchet - woman for the dishonorable insurer out to save its Yankee green. Theee is much feel good liberal predictability in the denouement. To an extent the movie does show how doctors are willing conspirators or accomplices in the process. The acting flagged in places but overall the film did portray the essential ethical conflict between being a doctor and being the hatchet person kaboshing medical procedures treating doctors thought necessary. Too much feel - good liberalism enters the picture. In real life, insurers have little trouble finding replacements for such as the honest doc portrayed here and few docs if any ever become whistle blowers.

Very nice movie. runs for around 1 hour and 50 minutes. Laura Dern does an amazing job in portraying the character of Dr. Linda Peeno who plays a medical adviser for 2 HMOs. An HMO is a Health Maintenance Organization, somewhat similar to an insurance company. She plays the whistle-blower in the movie who exposes the corruption in the system people are unaware of. A very thought provoking movie which at moments leaves you shocked and at times frustrated with the existing medical system. The supporting cast is also very good (except for the person playing her husband's part) but Laura Dern steals the show. This movie falls in the Erin Brokovich category. It is one of the few movies which you MUST watch with your family.

I saw this movie again recently. The first time I saw it I was incredulous, and the second time, even more so. Is this really truly how health care is funded in America?? Isn't there any kind of public system at all?

I just can't get over the apparent fact that a country that claims to be the most advanced of the so called developed countries would only have private health care. It's ridiculous.

Here only elective surgery is rationed, hip replacements, cataract surgery, that kind of thing. If you've got insurance, then you can go private, but otherwise, if you've got enough points, you get put on the waiting list and you eventually get your op for free. (The thing with the heart transplant would *never* happen here, that sort of thing isn't covered by our main health insurance company, as it's fully funded by the government.)

Although people are constantly winging and moaning about expensive doctor visits, (about NZ$50-$60 for an unsubsidised adult) if you need to go to A & E, you just go. In an ambulance, or otherwise. You don't have to ask permission.

What, prey tell, do people do if they can't afford health insurance?

In 1980, Linda Peeno (Laura Dern) is a student doctor who witnesses excessive procedures for the insurance money. In 1987, she joins Humana as a medical reviewer. She and her husband have a blended family. She believes in filtering out the excessive medical work, but she soon discovers that managed care is less about medicine and more about business. She is forced to deny a man a life saving heart transplant. She is congratulated for saving the company half a million dollar which is about the cost of their new sculpture. She would eventually become a whistleblower against the industry.

This is an advocacy movie on Showtime. While it is informative, it is not necessarily dramatic. It is also about timing. By 2002, the subject matter is well considered and HMOs are already the uber-villains. It is interesting to see the business priorities that permeates the environment.