CMD's Wendell Potter Interviewed by Amy Goodman

Submitted by John Stauber on

Wendell Potter is the former CIGNA health insurance executive who is now Senior Fellow on Health Care with the Center for Media and Democracy. He is blowing the whistle on his former industry's lobby and PR tactics and was interviewed July 16, 2009 for forty-five minutes by Amy Goodman of the radio and TV program Democracy Now! The entire interview can be viewed online. Here is a snippet:

AMY GOODMAN: What is the game plan of the health insurance industry?

WENDELL POTTER: Well, the game plan is based on scare tactics. And, of course, the thing they fear most is that the country will at some point gravitate toward a single-payer plan. That's the ultimate fear that they have. But they know that right now that is not something that's on the legislative table. And they've been very successful in making sure that it isn't. They fear even the public insurance option that's being proposed, that was part of President Obama's campaign platform, his healthcare platform. And they'll pull out all the stops they can to defeat that. And they'll be working with their ideological allies, with the business community, with conservative pundits and editorial writers, to try to scare people into thinking that embracing a public health insurance option would lead us down the slippery slope toward socialism and that you will be, in essence, putting a government bureaucrat between you and your doctor. That is—you know, they've used those talking points for years, and in years past they've always worked.

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Greg L replied on

Here is actual text from a report on Wait Times by the Canadian Institute for Health Information. You can download it yourself from their website. Ask what makes Canada different from the United States, and health care is sure to come up. Interestingly, though, Canadians and insured Americans are about equally likely to report unmet needs for health care in the past year.1 One in ten adults on both sides of the border did so in 2002–2003. (Rates are much higher for uninsured Americans.) But the leading reasons for access problems do diverge. In the United States, cost was the most common barrier, cited by just over half of those with unmet needs. In Canada, waiting for care was named as a barrier by 32% of those with access difficulties. This overall result, however, masks the variations in barriers to access for different types of services. Waits are the most common barrier named by seekers of specialist care who encounter difficulties. The same is true for those seeking non-emergency diagnostic testing and surgery. For routine and ongoing medical care, more mentioned difficulties getting an appointment than cited wait time. Likewise, the cost of getting help was the top barrier reported by Canadians with disabilities who had unmet needs for help with everyday activities. On the other hand, Canadian women who have not had a recent pap smear or mammogram are most likely to say that it was because they or their doctor didn't think one was necessary or because they haven' gotten around to it. So the CIHI reports shows that American are waiting for health care because of the cost, while Canadians are waiting mainly for non-emergency, or non-essential procedures.

Bonitalulu replied on

l wonder why nobody speaks about the claims against Kaiser, Blue Cross and other Health Insurance Co? I thought I have one of the best Health Insurance with Kaiser. When I start feeling really sick I discover doctors don't like to send you to a specialist. It takes 2 months to get an appointment with a Gynecologist. When one Friday I took my husband to Emergency because of severe chest pain we have to wait 45 minutes for a room and another 30 minutes to see a doctor. He was left overnight for observation. They release him the following Saturday afternoon. At 3 Am on Sunday he died!!! Couldn't have kept my husband for 2 or 3 days for observation? Give him the right test? I think that the HMO needs competition. The Senators in Congress are not treated this way. I know of other people with similar experiences. I have Medicare now and thanks to that program I have peace of mind. And this is a Government program. I still keep Kaiser. The problem with Medicare is that they are overcharged by some hospitals and again nobody from Medicare pay attention when people tell them about these abuses. That has to change if we want to control the expenses. I know about this because what happened to my mother in law! I hope people don't believe all the lies in the Media.

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