Recently, as a gift to the ushers for a local performing arts stage company, we were given the opportunity to view a screening of "Escape Fire"...described as the fight to save American Health Care...
I highly suggest trying to see it for yourselves...
Escape fire..the phrase was coined for the process of saving oneself when the possibility of entrapment exists from an approaching wildfire...The movie begins by describing a Montana fire that was moving at 600 miles per hour...the fire fighters soon realized that they were unable to outrun it. One took an individual approach...he lit a fire in a circle around himself, and invited the others to join him...they did not...he was the only one to survive (40% of the deaths from wildfires are caused by entrapment)...his fire burnt the fuel for the approaching fire, so it passed him.
The movie points to a need for an escape fire alternative thought process for surviving with the current state of health "care" in America...it suggests that individuals must be proactive in doing this...
Some of the alarming statistics are (hopefully) correctly recalled from the movie...
1. Over $4.1 trillion was being spent in 2011 in the American health care system.
2. Over 75% of the chronic diseases that are treated are curable without their prescribed. medicines, but with "well care".
3. America is ranked #50 in life expectancy in the world.
4. Over 50% of the military deaths are caused by suicide with drug-induced depression.
5. The third cause of death in America behind cancer and heart disease is infection due to hospital staff infections.
6. Avandia was a drug that was the most profitable to hit the market, with quick FDA approval to treat diabetes. What was not being sheared was that it promoted heart disease that was already the major cause of diabetic deaths.
7. Pharmaceutical companies, equipment manufacturers, hospitals, ans insurance companies are realizing incredible profits from the promoted declining health of Americans.
8. We already spend more in America on pharmaceuticals than the rest of the world combined.
9. Only a small percentage of medical schools teach nutrition as part of their curriculum.
10. Doctors are not reimbursed for well-care.
11. A fee for service model of reimbursement promotes the prescription of more medical care.
12. The corporate-controlled food industry does not have our health through nutrition in mind.
13.Stress kills, and even in our schools opportunities for dealing with it (exercise, the arts, socialization) are disappearing...
Our realization of the problems, is the first step to dealing with them...let the positive alternatives flow...
