To mark National Public Health Week, April 1-7, DMU’s Master of Public Health Student Club invites you to a free showing of the award-winning film, “Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare.” The film takes a hard look at our nation’s “badly broken” health care system, with its high costs, poor health outcomes and focus on disease care versus prevention.
Named after the swath of grassland or forest that firefighters intentionally ignite to provide shelter from an oncoming blaze, “Escape Fire,” in the words of directors Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke, strives to “address what might be done to create a sustainable system for the future, to transcend the misinformation, the angry partisan debates and create a clear and comprehensive look at health care in America.”
No small goal, and a critically important one: Heineman and Froemke point out that within 10 years, health care costs in America are on track to reach $4.2 trillion annually, roughly 20 percent of our gross domestic product. We’re not getting our money’s worth, they add, given that “about 65 percent of Americans are overweight and almost 75 percent of health care costs are spent on preventable diseases that are the major causes of disability and death in our society.”
Join the DMU community for this important film and discussion. The showing, which is free and open to the public, will occur on Tuesday, April 2, at 7 p.m. in DMU’s Student Education Center Auditorium. Click here for a campus map and directions.
