Submitted by John Stauber on
New York Daily News columnist Stanley Crouch writes that the Center for Media and Democracy's Wendell Potter is providing the health care reform movement with its most powerful ammunition. "Everyone is familiar with the street adage that one should not take a knife to a gunfight. ... The best ammunition is at least one highly placed whistleblower. ... In America, there are often those who seem sent here for the purpose of exposing what we need to know. When such people are found and used strategically, big things take the fall. The best ammunition for the elephant gun I have seen so far is Wendell Potter, who spent 20 years working up in the command towers for the health industry. While an executive employee of two health care behemoths, Cigna and Humana, Potter learned well how to bean-ball the truth whenever it came to the plate. ... Potter could be to the health industry what scientist Victor J. DeNoble was to the tobacco industry when his time came. In 1994, DeNoble testified that Philip Morris had hired him to do research on the dangerous effects of nicotine, then suppressed what he found out when the results proved cigarettes to be harmful."
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Anonymous replied on Permalink
Wendell Potter
Thank you Mr. Potter for becoming the public spokesperson for the national (health) good. We would be fortunate to have you as a cabinet advisor to President Obama. I fear the President does not have the requisite courage, character and conviction to stand up to the lobbyists nor to the so-called Blue Dod Democrats who are controlled by the drug and insurance industries.
Stephen Barrett, MD replied on Permalink
The phrase "health care reform" is off-target
We should stop calling for "health care reform." What we really need is INSURANCE reform. Using this term may help focus on the core problem of our ailing health-care system.