The Virginian-Pilot
©
For almost two decades, Wendell Potter spoke for health insurers.
Now, he speaks out against them.
The former head of corporate communications for CIGNA says profits drive the insurance industry, and that its highly paid executives deceive and manipulate to put shareholders first - above the health needs of their members.
His eyes were opened, Potter said, by a trip to an annual free clinic in Wise County, Va., where thousands of uninsured people lined up to receive medical treatment from doctors and nurses in converted animal stalls.
"I was part of a big, ongoing effort to mislead you so thoroughly that you wouldn't even consider supporting a health care proposal that might hurt insurance company profits," he said in a Monday night presentation at the Meyera E. Oberndorf Central Library in Virginia Beach.
After the Wise County event, Potter said, "I knew I could not in good conscience continue serving as a spokesman for the insurance industry - that's because I understood then and there that I was part of the problem."
Potter, who described his conversion in the 2010 book "Deadly Spin," spoke before an audience of about 60 at a forum sponsored by Virginia Organizing, Empower Hampton Roads and the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy.
The groups' leaders said they organized the event to correct misinformation about last year's federal health care law. Del. Algie T. Howell Jr., D-Norfolk, said he wished more people had attended: "I would have loved to have seen 500 people here."
Potter has testified before Congress on the issue and now serves as a senior analyst at the Center for Public Integrity, a Washington-based nonprofit investigative news organization.
In a presentation featuring music, photographs and animation, he listed misconceptions about the overhaul. There are no government "death panels." The law doesn't cut Medicare benefits, he said, and it doesn't call for a "government takeover" of health care.
"My colleagues and I came up with that term," Potter said, "to scare the heck out of people."
He went on to catalog aspects of the law that could help people. Insurers can no longer deny coverage to children because of pre-existing conditions. Young adults can stay on their parents' plans longer. Small businesses can get tax credits to help pay for employees' health premiums.
One audience member said he was dubious about that benefit.
"You can't make payroll with tax credits," said Wayne Perry, owner of Community Personal Care, a 360-employee Norfolk company.
Potter conceded that "tax credits are not the best way to try to bring more people to coverage if people work in small businesses." Providing health insurance for employees may not contribute to a company's bottom line, he said, but it might help attract desirable employees.
"The Affordable Care Act is not perfect," Potter said, "But repealing it and starting over is not a prudent way to move forward."
Amy Jeter, (757) 446-2730, amy.jeter@pilotonline.com
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Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out ...
Deadly spin : an insurance company insider speaks out on how corporate PR is killing health care and deceiving Americans by Wendell Potter.
This book is available at Norfolk Public Library.
Deadly Sin
Mr. Wendell spent 20 years making a 6 figure income before resigning to write a book bashing his work and the work of Cigna. The profit margin for Cigna is low compared to most businesses and what can we say about health care. The United States has the best health care in the world and the only system that allows non-citizens to come to this country and receive top notch medical care for free. Mr. Wendell is making alot of money for his book and speaking engagements, but before this he was running a business that he considers irresponsible, full of greed, and profit. I wonder if he took a retirement from this company he is complaining about? I fully understand that the health care systems need improvement, but wasn't that his job!
Insurance
We see it over and over: Socialism for the wealthy (BAILOUTS/handouts) and Capitalism for the rest of us (Make it or break it).
Answer me this one question...
If someone speaks out about a corrupt practice in the Health Insurance business, what difference does it make whether or not it comes from someone who is on the right or the left? It is our money and our lives that are at stake here. Just wait until you or a family member are denied a lifesaving operation (due to non-payment by the large insurance company you have had health insurance with for years) because of some unrelated pre-existing condition. Your tune will change dramatically. Anyone? Care to field that one, Duppy the conqueror?
Where's the "liberal" label in this story and headline?
First off: "About 60 people" attending should tell you something. Next, if this were a Tea Party speaker or from some other small Govt group there would no doubt be a healthy sprinkling of dour "conservative" epithets throughout. Why none here? Other posts have pointed out this speaker (+ groups who organized the talk) are definitely bent Left, so where's the balance in ID-ing them as such? Using basic web research we learn the mission of "VA Organizing" is all over Left Field: what does "Anti Discrimination" have to do with "Environment"? How does "Health Care" impact "Predatory Lending"? Finally: "Economic justice" (whatever THAT means). Where do these groups get their money? Who are their leaders? Who backs them? C'mon Pilot!
I can answer the question about economic justice
economic justice is wealth re-distribution.
We prefer to call it recouping stolen money.
Because most of the wealth at the top was accumulated by shafting the majority of Americans through low wages, tax loopholes, high insurance premiums, financial shenanigans, bank fees etc., transaction fees, etc. etc., outrageous interests rates on loans etc. etc.
No CEO is worth 300 times the average employee. Ridiculous CEO pay is specifically inherant to America, no where else do CEOs earn these ridiculous sums. Yet people complain if a carpenter makes $30 an hour. And to top it off, foreign CEOs, earning a third the salary and bonus consistantly out perform their American counterparts.
Hmm, ever taken an economics course?
Do you know what education and experience it takes to be a CEO? Do you have any idea of the hours a CEO puts in every week? How many people working in the average factory have the credentials to BE a CEO? Are you willing to make the sacrifices in your family life necessary to be a CEO? How many factory workers could arrange the financing for the factory? How many factory workers could arrange the logistics to supply the assebly line?
...and,
economic injustice is "Trickle-down Economics"
Trickle in the rich mans pocket economics...
is more than an injustice. It is a national tragedy and crisis.
Republicans like to talk about getting back to the heydey of American Capitalism. Well that so called hey day was an era of high unionization, regulation, and higher tax rates on the wealthy elite.
Thirty years of the laisezz faire, trickle down, tax cuts for the rich creates jobs lie has bankrupted the nation and created enormous inequaltity in wealth, and is working on destroying our meager social safety nets for senior citizens. Americans better wake up soon or it will be to late. Most folks young and middle age folks are in for a huge reality shock when they reach retirement age on these 401k savings plan jokes.