A Neurosurgeon Turns Film Auteur
Vivekanand Palavali, M.D., has it all. A neurosurgeon who trained at the University of Chicago and practices in Flint, Mich., he is the embodiment of the American Dream, someone who has made more than good since he immigrated from India in the mid-1980s.
Yet Palavali isn’t satisfied. Despite making a comfortable living, he practices in one of the most economically battered cities in the U.S. The automotive industry mostly pulled out of Flint in the 1970s, and the Great Recession has caused the number of uninsured patients he treats to about double.
“I began asking myself, ‘isn’t anyone ashamed?’ America is the richest, powerful nation in the world,” he said. “It spends close to $3 trillion a year on healthcare. Where is the money going to?”
To find out, Palavali put himself behind the two digital cameras he owns.
The end result is a documentary called “Bitter Pill: America & Healthcare In America.”
Given Palavali served as “Bitter Pill’s” director, writer, cameraman and narrator and is not a professional filmmaker, he nonetheless created a remarkably clear indictment of the U.S. healthcare system. “Bitter Pill” is far closer to what you would see on “Frontline” than YouTube.
Palavali traveled to five countries for his research, and interviewed everyone from healthcare policy experts to an exotic dancer in Las Vegas named “Malibu.” She acknowledged that she entertains spinal surgeons and other physicians, compliments of the nation’s medical supply companies. That is among the reasons, Palavali concluded, that spinal fusion supplies cost about five times as much in the U.S. than anywhere else in the world.
He also discussed the disinformation dumped onto the American people by politicians who foment fears that any expansion of healthcare coverage is the equivalent of European-style socialism. Which is how an uninsured patient of Palavali’s who is on the business end of $100,000 in medical bills after breaking her neck in a roller skating accident was able to dismiss the Affordable Care Act as damaging to the country.
As a matter of fact, one of the most trenchant observations about the U.S. healthcare system came from a Swede Palavali interviewed. Sweden, of course, has guaranteed access to healthcare.
“Money makes the choice for them,” she said of the Americans.
As a result, Palavali concluded that the U.S. system is much closer to that of a developing country such as his native India, where those with money have access to decent hospitals and everybody else is on their own. Palavali makes this poignant point by managing to find two homeless cancer victims – one in India, and one just footsteps away from Harvard University.
Palavali’s film has its flaws; it relies too much on the long-faded Occupy movement for too much source material, and spends too much time visiting the ruined streets of cities such as Detroit and East St. Louis, Ill. without tying them closely enough to his thesis.
But overall, “Bitter Pill” is a better effort than another film about healthcare created by a resident of Flint: Michael Moore’s “Sicko.” That’s primarily because Palavali’s narrative is backed by facts and isn’t gummed up with smugness and stunts such as taking a bunch of Americans to Cuba for a checkup.
“Bitter Pill” is playing primarily in theaters in the Flint area. More information is available at www.bitterpilldoc.com.
If you are able to track a showing of it down, I strongly suggest you watch it. You may not agree with what it has to say, but it cohesively puts together many interesting facts about the unique business of U.S. healthcare delivery, and presents them in an engaging and informative manner.
