TIME Features Wendell Potter, Obama Quotes Him

Submitted by John Stauber on

"Wendell Potter may be the ideal whistle-blower. The former head of corporate communications for health-insurance giant Cigna, 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, 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 for the nonpartisan public-interest group the Center for Media and Democracy. ... 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 in his September 9th address to Congress quoted Wendell Potter's Congressional testimony.

Main Source: 
TIME magazine, September 7, 2009
Topics: 
Corporations
Health
Public Relations

Comments

Anonymous replied on

Wendell, God bless him, won't matter. He could go into every home in America and give a hour-long presentation to each family on how the insurers are screwing us, and it wouldn't matter. There is too much money at stake for the industry to ever let their well-paid lackeys in Congress pass a bill to the detriment of the monopoly. Even if they did pass something called a "public option" or "universal coverage," it would be a toothless dragon for which no one in their right minds would sign up.

Money, that's what matters to politicians. Not polls, not protests, nothing but money.

Anonymous replied on

You just nailed it right there. Sadly, most people continue to live under the illusion that the US is a democracy and that voting and protesting will achieve anything. It is really depressing knowing that by the time they realize what is truly going on, it will be too late. If they realize it at all.

Anonymous replied on

My Health Insurance is really expensive. It costs me and my family over $15,000 per year, including dental and vision. My bills are probably only a couple of thousand per year since we are all in good health. It's a good plan and I like it, except the cost. I really want some reform that will help me save some money and from what I understand I may.

I see that I would be required to have health insurance or pay a couple of thousand dollar penalty. Am I wrong to think that I can drop my insurance and then just get it if I need it, like if I got cancer? Am I missing something?

freedemocrat replied on

I have seen the parts where you wold be paying $4,000 for a family of four if you avoided any insurance from anyone, but you would probably find that actually buying insurance would be a similar price. I suspect that those who wanted to not have any doctors look at them until they noticed a severe problem, would probably have paid enough already to offset the fact that they waited till it was otherwise too late.

Elaine replied on

President Obama was right ... they will pull out all the stops to kill health insurance reform. Who know s what they would do to kill health care reform.

Decent people are dealing with snakes now.

It's time to call in all markers, find the skeletons in the closet, put everything on the line and shoot for the moon. Peoples lives are at stake.

My rule when you're in for the fight of your life: Never deal with someone who doesn't have as much to lose as you do. (Those who are as old as I am know what I mean).

Colin Smith replied on

Greetings from Canada. Regardless of whether an effective bill is passed this time around the debate is moot. This is because if nothing changes more and more people will lose their health insurance and more and more people will die for lack of it, and the outdoor free clinics will have longer and longer queues. Eventually it will be such a scandal, such an embarrassment for the United States, that universal health care will have to be imposed by government edict. Bismark started the 'welfare state' in the mid 19th century. Most advanced democracies, victors and vanquished, adopted universal health care after WW2. Some are very conservative, like Canada and Sweden. It has nothing to do with socialism, it is mutual insurance with the government holding the money. Up here in BC we pay per month:
$54 for one person
$96 for a family of two
$108 for a family of three or more
I'm physically staggered by the amount you pay for so little.
If our prescription expenses are very high there is Medicare which takes over the cost of drugs.

The corporate elite has for decades brainwashed Americans into thinking government is bad, and the less of it the better. This is of course a complete fraud. As Noam Chomsky says...it's public subsidy for private profit. The biggest beneficiaries of government are the corporations. The people need the government to stand between them and the corporations. And all this talk about communism is just plain silly. The vast majority haven't a clue what it is, and don't know they practice pure communism at every level of government every minute of their lives. At the municipal level you pay for your police, parks, and public services through local taxes assessed on the value of you property. If you want a policeman, or street lighting, you don't pay for it individually , but collectively, as you need them. i.e. contributing according to ability, and drawing according to need. The simplest pure communism. Federally you don't individually pay for a soldier, you pay through progressive taxation on your income and collectively call for them when you need them.
Maoism and Stalinism had nothing to do with communism. Nor does the present Chinese government. You are being mercilessly and systematically propogandized by the mainstream media. You will get your universal health care when you defy the corporations. Become informed and motivated.
Good Luck