Health Insurance Insider to Testify Before Senate

by John Stauber — June 23, 2009 - 8:47am
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Media Advisory for June 24, 2009:

HEALTH INSURANCE INSIDER TO TESTIFY BEFORE SENATE

Contact: Page Metcalf, Center for Media and Democracy

Phone: (608) 260-9713

Email: editor AT prwatch.org

Former Executive Warns Congress: Don't Be Fooled by For-Profit Industry's Misleading Campaign

Washington, DC – Wendell Potter, a former health insurance industry insider, will testify before the full Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday June 24, 2009 at 2:30 p.m. EST, exposing the health insurance industry's resistance to needed health care reform.

Mr. Potter spent more than 20 years as a public relations executive for two large health insurers - Cigna and Humana - but left the industry after witnessing practices he felt harmed American health care consumers. To him, there was a heart-breaking discrepancy between Americans struggling to find affordable, comprehensive coverage and wealthy insurance executives who based their premium charges – and coverage decisions – on profits rather than people's health care needs. He has decided to come forward in the hopes of stopping the health insurance industry from once again derailing meaningful reform.

He will testify about how big, for-profit insurers have hijacked our health care system and turned it into a giant ATM for Wall Street investors and how the industry is using its massive wealth and influence to determine what is (and is not) included in the legislation currently before Congress.

WHO: Wendell Potter, Former Health Insurance Executive (Cigna and Humana Inc.) and Senior Fellow on Health Care with the Center for Media and Democracy, exposing the industry and telling Congress, "Don't buy the hype."

WHAT: Hearing on "Consumer Choices and Transparency in the Health Insurance Industry,"
Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation

WHEN: Wednesday June 24, 2009 Hearing Start Time: 2:30 pm Press Pre-Set Time: 1:45 pm

WHERE: Room 253, Russell Senate Office Building

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Insurance Companies ARE the EXACT Problem!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 29, 2009 - 5:26pm.

Why is it that some of my conservative friends are so willing to put their lives, literally, in the hands of private industry? Why don't they get that the goal of a company is to make money, not ensure your well being?

Government may not run more efficiently than business, but the reason governments were created was to to protect the citizenry. The government is US and therefore it exists to serve our best interests.

Whenever private insurance companies can find loopholes that allow them to save their money by not paying out benefits, they do. It's well documented. Why the h*ll would a shareholder, who invests in a company to MAKE MONEY, complain to an insurance company about its practices if it's making them money? And am I, as a sick person tied into my company's healthcare provider, supposed to rely on shareholders to keep my company honest, for my welfare?

Let's just call a spade a spade here: Those who oppose a government alternative to private insurance companies are concerned about one thing only – their financial bottom line. It begins and ends with money for them, period. I'm sick and tired of listening to the defenders of health insurance companies cry, cry cry - first that socialized healthcare can't match the privatized version, but then that the competition would undercut their beloved private institutions.

Pick a side fellas- either government-sponsored healthcare sucks, in which case you have no need to fear it, or it works, in which case it would be a threat. You can't have it both ways.

just raise taxes

Submitted by angstless (not verified) on June 24, 2009 - 12:07pm.

we CAN afford affordable health CARE but not unaffordable health INSURANCE if we raise taxes by far less than we are now paying for health INSURANCE...and get better care. they claim the INSURANCE industry is innovative??? in what way, except in ways to deny and delay care...innovation comes from NIC and the CDC and grants FROM THE GOVERNMENT to colleges and universities..those privately run grants are to create demand where NONE exists in the first place. Got ugly toenails? we got the cure, just make sure you get your liver tested every month to ensure it does not decay in the process. No government money was used in finding a cure for ugly toenails!

Health Insurance Companies' Executive Salaries

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 23, 2009 - 4:02pm.

Thank you for the media advisory above. Here is some additional information:

HMO Executive Salaries
Reprinted from FAMILIES USA

The HMOs complain that any increase in their costs of treating patients will require them to raise premiums, making them too costly, and causing many to go without insurance.

Are their budgets really so spare that they couldn't absorb any cost increases without raising premiums?

For a start, we might look at the amount of premium dollars removed from patient care by being paid to executives.

You decide how much room there is for savings.

http://www.harp.org/hmoexecs.htm  

insurance companies

Submitted by jump manual (not verified) on November 7, 2010 - 11:06pm.

I think it's important for us to lay the groundwork before we begin to repeal this conditions has simply caused insurance companies to stop writing these policies. And it does nothing to lower medical and drug costs. It is simply a BAD bill in which those of the medical community were not brought in to testify.