Money-driven Medicine

This week on Bill Moyers Journal (airing locally at 9 p.m. Friday on WMHT-TV, Channel 17):

Produced by Academy Award winner Alex Gibney (Taxi to the Dark Side, Enron: the Smartest Guys in the Room) and based on Maggie Mahar's acclaimed book of the same name, Money-driven Medicine reveals how a profit-hungry "medical-industrial complex" has turned health care into a system where millions are squandered on unnecessary tests, unproven and sometimes unwanted procedures, and overpriced prescription drugs.

As Ms. Mahar notes:

“A physician takes an oath to put his patient's interests ahead of his own. A corporation is legally bound to put its shareholders' interests first. And this is part of the inherent conflict between health care as a business, part of our economy, and health care as a public good and part of our society. Health care has become a growth industry. That means higher health care bills. That means more and more middle-class people cannot afford health care in this country.”

You can learn more here.