TIME Features Wendell Potter, Obama Quotes Him [1]
Submitted by John Stauber [2] on
"Wendell Potter [3] may be the ideal whistle-blower. The former head of corporate communications for health-insurance giant Cigna [4], Potter turned against his old colleagues in June to testify before a congressional committee about what he viewed as the health-insurance industry's 'duplicitous' behavior in the current health-reform debate. ... Potter is now the only health-insurance insider to lambaste -- on the record -- the industry's motives. Potter warns that the industry's cooperation, which has been hailed by Democrats [5], is hogwash, a 'charm offensive' designed to disguise its true motive: profit. ... In Potter's view, these practices just need more exposure, which he's happy to provide -- on cable news or through his well-read blog [6] for the nonpartisan public-interest group the Center for Media and Democracy [7]. ... Stardom has inundated Potter with pleas to speak at pro-reform events around the country. He obliges nearly every time, relieved at 'being able to say what I really believe' after so many years as a tight-lipped health-insurance public-relations executive." President Barack Obama [8] in his September 9th address to Congress quoted Wendell Potter [9]'s Congressional testimony.