Bill Moyers Journal Features CMD's Wendell Potter

by John Stauber — July 9, 2009 - 4:23pm
  • Topics: Corporations, Health, Politics
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    Wendell Potter and Bill Moyers

    Wendell Potter, the Center for Media and Democracy's Senior Fellow on Health Care, was interviewed for most of an hour by Bill Moyers on his Journal program Friday, July 10th.

    Wendell 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. In his own words:

    I am speaking out 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 health care reform legislation members of Congress are now writing. I was in a unique position to see not only how Wall Street analysts and investors influence decisions insurance company executives make but also how the industry has carried out behind-the-scenes PR and lobbying campaigns to kill or weaken any health care reform efforts that threatened insurers' profitability.

    Wendell first went public as an advocate for health care reform as the lead witness at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing on June 24 and has since attracted significant and continuing news media attention.

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    Re:Boycott

    Submitted by anonymous (not verified) on September 4, 2009 - 9:39pm.

    If you're serious about boycotting, I'm considering trying to set up a web site dedicated to this idea. I have some friends who are interested in this concept, and they'd like the opportunity to talk with like minded individuals about the economics of this, financial strategies for handling health care costs without insurance, and so forth. Send me an email and let me know if you and anyone you know would be interested in joining. I'm trying to find at least 20 people who have done this before setting up the site, since I think you need a community to have a site. email me at mister.robinson@hotmail.com

    problem with health insurance

    Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on July 18, 2009 - 6:45pm.

    Mr. Potter is still operating inside his bubble. Why do we need health insurance at all? OK for major medical/catastrophic, but for every dr visit? Perhaps expenses will fall if in fact the system truly reverts to a doctor and his/her patient. Introducing gov't control isn't the answer. Let's simplify and maybe we can afford a simple visit to the doctor.

    Start thinking originally instead of looking at the flip side of the same coin.

    For-Profit Insurers are Investors

    Submitted by J Jonik (not verified) on July 14, 2009 - 1:39pm.

    Saying that insurers use the same tactics as "tobacco" firms is a touch off-target. Top for profit insurers ARE the cigarette industry in that they own billions of dollars of holdings in top cigarette manufacturers...and, for good measure, in manufacturers of tobacco pesticides. This goes far to explain why such insurers use the cigarette makers' deceptive name for themselves---"Tobacco companies"...as if they just provide some traditionally-used natural plant product.
    Such insurers, and complicit chemical firms involved with the pesticides and chlorine contamination of typical cigarettes, and their allies in government and media, are understandably loath to call cigarette makers "the Pesticide-Contaminated, Chlorine-contaminated, Dioxin-delivering, Radiation-delivering Cigarette Industry". (Rads come from certain fertilizers.) To do so would be a long overdue disaster for the insurers and the chemical and fertilizer cartels. If Wendell Potter touched on this scandalous angle, Big Insurance may well have already been packing its bags...making way for Single Payer.

    Why many Americans get their health care elsewhere

    Submitted by Mprandoni (not verified) on July 14, 2009 - 12:46pm.

    This illuminating interview also illustrates why so many are signing up for medical tourism, which has huge consequences for the environment and deprives locals of basic care because their doctors cater to spoiled people from wealthy nations.
    http://www.ecohearth.com/eco-blogs/small-earth/442-the-hidden-costs-of-medical-tourism.html

    I watched the Bill Moyers

    Submitted by eddie in oglesby illinois (not verified) on July 13, 2009 - 9:32pm.

    I watched the Bill Moyers interview with Wendell Potter and I am sickened. Not by what was actually said in the interview, but what seems to be a horrible trend in the United States these days. Its the fact that large corporations and wall street have our government in their pocket. This is not a conservative/liberal or democrat/republican problem...this is our problem...THE PEOPLES PROBLEM !! What in God's name are we going to do about this. We can't even turn to OUR elected officials to help us. You know, I am 46 years old and this is NOT the country I once knew. We really need to do something drastic to get their attention. You know, when I was in school they taught us about something called a BOYCOTT !! We, the people, need to standup up for our rights. When the Iranian people didn't like what was going on, they took to the streets in protest. I think we need to have a peaceful revolution to let our government know that we DEMAND change in healthcare, we DEMAND accountablility for the last 8 years of criminal acts, and WE DEMAND CHANGE...NOW !!

    Wendell Potter/ Health Care Reform--Bill Moyer's Journal

    Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on July 13, 2009 - 2:21pm.

    I am finding it most interesting, what Mr. Wendell Potter has to say about what the insurance industry has been, and is doing. My brother worked with the insurance industry for over 20 years before retiring, and it puzzled me as to why he was still, though retired, parroting the lies we have been hearing about Gov. health care regulations or programs, using scare tactics, such as our moving toward socialism with such Gov. programs, etc.; telling how bad the health care programs are in Canada, England, and other countries. I thought that he had just watched way too much Fox "news" (propaganda and nothing less) and had become brainwashed by the wild eyed nut case Republicans who never tire in talking this way about any Health care reform. I now know, though well educated and well meaning, that my brother was and is brainwashed first of all by the very corporation with which he worked for all those years. I want to thank Mr. Wendell Potter for clearing this up, and helping me to better understand my own brother, regarding health care reform.

    Wendell Potter is a Hero

    Submitted by Kathy of Silicon Valley (not verified) on July 12, 2009 - 8:17pm.

    I am watching Bill Moyers interview with Wendell Potter, it is a real eye opener, he should be on the front page of every newspaper in the country, the guy gave up a cushy job to speak out about the slimy practices of the healthcare industry. Go Wendell!

    Healthcare Reform

    Submitted by Christina Deegan (not verified) on July 11, 2009 - 6:57pm.

    Thank you Mr. Potter for revealing the unscrupulous strategies and tactics of the health insurance industry. As a long time member of an Indiana group advocating for the single payer option (www. hchp.org) I had long suspected as much and it was good to have your verification.

    Your congressional testimony and the Interview with Bill Moyers should be required viewing for anyone concerned about healthcare reform. I have emailed Senator Baucus with links to the PBS web site and plan to forward them on also to my congressional representatives. I hope others will do the same.

    http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07102009/watch.html
    http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07102009/watch2.html

    Christina Deegan
    Bloomington, Indiana

    Bill Moyers Journal

    Submitted by kanna (not verified) on July 11, 2009 - 8:42am.

    Mr. Potter's appearance on the Journal was informative and useful. He has the insiders' facts. Most of us, John Q's, out here just have personal stories.
    Yet, as I read the on-going, ever-changing, health care squabbles and rants in Congress I fear the lobbyists have done their jobs.
    When Mr. Potter appeared before Congress that should have been the end of the arguing. I am sorry I didn't get to see it but I think I pretty much know how it went.
    The title of a book, Congress, the Sapless Branch by Sen. Joseph Clark often comes to mind. President Obama while trying to return to the Legislative branch some of their share of governance may wake up and realize he has been dreaming.
    I hope it is not too late.

    Wendell Potter Comes Out Of The Shadows

    Submitted by LouAnn (not verified) on July 11, 2009 - 1:25am.

    Wendell Potter tells it like it is. President Obama are you listening? Read the Luntz paper, "The Language of Healthcare 2009," to learn how health insurance companies manipulate language with emotion in order to play and win on their terms. This interview needs to be broadcast far and wide--but where are the Facebook and twitter buttons? At long last Michael Moore gets insider support for all that his 'Sicko' documentary brought to light. Bill Moyer's interview is a 'must see' if you care an inkling about the future of healthcare in our troubled nation. And who doesn't care? As autism climbs to 1 in 150 births, cancer leads disease-related causes of death in small children and obesity is claiming 30% of our youth, we are sinking deeper and deeper into a morass. This ship we call American healthcare makes the Titanic look like an overturned canoe. Wendell Potter you are to be applauded.

    LouAnn
    Los Angeles