Wendell Potter's News Articles

Op-Ed

"Occupy Wall Street" Should Protest Wall Street Takeover of Health Care

by Wendell Potter — October 11, 2011 - 1:16pm
  • Topics: Activism, Corporations, Economy, Health

    • The lobbyists for U.S. health insurers surely have to be feeling a little uneasy knowing that thousands of Occupy Wall Street demonstrators who have been marching and protesting in Washington as well as New York and other cities might target them in the days ahead. After all, the headquarters of the insurers' biggest lobbying and PR group, America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), at 601 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., is just blocks away from Freedom Plaza, where the demonstrators have set up camp -- and problems with health insurers appear to be near the top of the list of protesters' concerns.

    Op-Ed

    Health Care Reform Opponents Winning the PR War

    by Wendell Potter — September 29, 2011 - 2:27pm
  • Topics: Corporations, Ethics, Health

    • The Kaiser Family Foundation just released the findings of its annual survey of businesses to determine how much the cost of employer-sponsored health coverage has gone up. There were some unexpected findings.

    One was that the average cost of annual premiums for family coverage is now more than $15,000. The 9 percent increase in the cost of health insurance over last year caught many people by surprise because it represented a bigger hike in premiums than in recent years.

    Op-Ed

    Health Care Front Group Provides New Clothes for GOP Medicare Privatization Plan

    by Wendell Potter — September 25, 2011 - 9:37pm
  • Topics: Corporations, Ethics, Health

    • If you think Rep. Paul Ryan's plan to privatize Medicare is dead, think again.

    Last week, the insurance industry and its allies began what I predict will be a massive campaign to sell the public and policymakers on the idea of moving forward with the Ryan plan -- albeit with a few tweaks and new a new sales pitch to make it seem more consumer-friendly.

    An outfit called the Healthcare Leadership Council (HLC) announced in a press release a scheme that could be called Ryan-lite, but don't be fooled: the plan would -- to use a favorite industry term -- take us down the "slippery slope" toward a complete corporate takeover of the Medicare program. (Insurers and their allies for years have warned Americans that enacting sweeping health care reforms they don't like would lead us down the slippery slope toward socialism.)

    Op-Ed

    GOP Backs Insurance Industry-Friendly, Anti-Consumer Bills

    by Wendell Potter — September 15, 2011 - 12:49pm
  • Topics: Corporations, Ethics, Health

    • House Republicans, unable to repeal President Obama's health care reform law outright, have decided to go after it piece by piece. If they are successful, what's likely to remain is the kind of reform the insurance industry dreamed of, but never really thought could be the law of the land.

    Although the Republican-controlled House passed legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act several months ago, the Senate, controlled by Democrats, rejected it. Bills are now being considered in the House that would strip some of the most important consumer protections from the new law. If the bills' sponsors are successful, health insurers would be free to spend as little of our premium dollars on our health care as they want, and they would be able to continue setting lifetime limits on policies and cancel our coverage at the time we need it most -- when we get sick. Other important benefits to consumers would also disappear.

    Op-Ed

    Rick Perry's Texas Health Care Hoax

    by Wendell Potter — September 1, 2011 - 12:12pm
  • Topics: Health, Politics, Propaganda

    • In his quest to win the Republican presidential nomination, Texas Gov. Rick Perry is perpetuating a convincing hoax: that implementing Texas-style tort reform would go a long way toward curing what ails the U.S. health care system.

    Like his fellow GOP contenders, Perry consistently denounces "Obamacare" as "a budget-busting, government takeover of healthcare" and "the greatest intrusion on individual freedom in a generation." He promises to repeal the law if elected.

    Op-Ed

    Volunteer Doctors Can't Keep Up with Needs of Uninsured and Underinsured

    by Wendell Potter — August 29, 2011 - 12:01pm
  • Topics: Activism, Health, Human Rights

    • A few months before I left my job in the insurance industry in 2008, I was working on a "white paper" to try to persuade people -- especially lawmakers and candidates running for office that year -- that the problem of the uninsured in this country was not a big deal.

    At that time, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, there were an estimated 47 million Americans who were uninsured, a number that has increased since then by about 4 million. My job was to slice and dice the Census data in such a way to convince people that most of those without coverage were just shirking their personal responsibility to buy it.

    Op-Ed

    Insurers Deliberately Confuse Policyholders and Dump the Sick

    by Wendell Potter — August 22, 2011 - 12:48pm
  • Topics: Corporations, Ethics, Health

    • A couple of years ago, when Sen. Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia asked me to testify about little-known health insurance industry practices at a hearing of his Senate Commerce Committee, I initially was reluctant. I knew that if I was completely honest, my life would change forever.

    What he was asking me to do was to disclose practices that have contributed to the growing number of Americans without insurance, the even faster growing number of us who are underinsured, and the phenomenal increase in insurance industry profits over the years, even as the ranks of those without coverage swelled.

    Op-Ed

    Taking on Bachmann, Whose Pants Are Always On Fire

    by Wendell Potter — August 18, 2011 - 9:34am
  • Topics: Right Wing, Economy, Health, Propaganda

    • If NBC's David Gregory had asked just a couple of follow-up questions of Michele Bachmann on Meet the Press on Sunday, August 14, he would have found that her anecdote about how "Obamacare" will lead to economic ruin doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

    In fact, he would have found that the financial problems of the Iowa employer she cites to bolster her point are far more likely the result of the economic policies of former President George W. Bush.

    In answering Gregory's question about how she would "turn the economy around within several months" if elected president, as she recently promised to do, Bachmann pledged to repeal both the health care reform law and the Dodd-Frank Act, which Congress enacted last year to reform the way financial institutions are regulated.

    Op-Ed

    Corporations are People, My Friend, and So are States, Say GOPers

    by Wendell Potter — August 15, 2011 - 1:28pm
  • Topics: Corporations, Ethics, Health

    • While on the campaign trail in Iowa, former corporate executive and Republican governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney shot back at hecklers who were challenging his stance that it would be unfair and unwise to raise taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations to reduce the deficit.

    "Corporations are people, my friend," Romney said. "Everything corporations earn ultimately goes to the people. Where do you think it goes? Whose pockets? People's pockets! Human beings, my friend."

    Democrats were quick to pounce.

    News

    Florida Governor Scott Reduces Choice and Competition in Health Care

    by Wendell Potter — August 11, 2011 - 12:26pm
  • Topics: Right Wing, Corporations, Health

    • As he was gearing up to run for governor of Florida, Republican Rick Scott emerged as one of the most vocal opponents of what he and others began referring to as "Obamacare."

    Scott created, chaired and bankrolled a group called Conservatives for Patients Rights that spent millions of dollars on TV commercials attacking health care reform, especially a proposal calling for the federal government to create a public health insurance option to compete with private insurers.

    In one ad, the narrator said the votes of a few key senators could determine whether or not Americans would be able to keep their own doctors and their own health insurance plans. The implication was clear -- people would lose the ability to choose their own doctors if health reform passed.

    Trouble was, it wasn't true.

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