John Stauber's News Articles

Wendell Potter is the former CIGNA health insurance executive who is now Senior Fellow on Health Care with the Center for Media and Democracy. He is blowing the whistle on his former industry's lobby and PR tactics and was interviewed July 16, 2009 for forty-five minutes by Amy Goodman of the radio and TV program Democracy Now! The entire interview can be viewed online. Here is a snippet:

AMY GOODMAN: What is the game plan of the health insurance industry?

WENDELL POTTER: Well, the game plan is based on scare tactics. And, of course, the thing they fear most is that the country will at some point gravitate toward a single-payer plan. That's the ultimate fear that they have. But they know that right now that is not something that's on the legislative table. And they've been very successful in making sure that it isn't. They fear even the public insurance option that's being proposed, that was part of President Obama's campaign platform, his healthcare platform. And they'll pull out all the stops they can to defeat that. And they'll be working with their ideological allies, with the business community, with conservative pundits and editorial writers, to try to scare people into thinking that embracing a public health insurance option would lead us down the slippery slope toward socialism and that you will be, in essence, putting a government bureaucrat between you and your doctor. That is—you know, they've used those talking points for years, and in years past they've always worked.

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.

The economic recession has been brutal to our Center for Media and Democracy, bringing a drop in individual and foundation funding that forced us to reduce our staff and cut our budget. Despite the stress and turmoil we stayed the course in conducting a national search for my replacement, our next executive director. We simultaneously appealed to past supporters for financial help, and we developed new programs with new supporters. I hoped that by this summer we'd be able to both announce a new executive leader and the turn-around of our economic crisis.

After months of difficulty and with hard work by our board and sacrifice by our staff, I'm elated to report that we have succeeded. An extensive search led by our consultant Susan Egmont has brought us a dynamic new executive director who despite her youth has years of national leadership in both government service and with prominent public interest and civil liberties groups in Washington, DC. We'll introduce her to you soon in early July. At the same time, we've obtained new financial support to launch a major program focused on analyzing the massive new government spending on corporate bailouts, economic stimulus and health care reform.

The health care component will be led in part by Wendell Potter, a former industry insider who is working with us to examine the role of the powerful insurance industry in undermining, manipulating and thwarting reform.

Thanks to everyone who responded to last month's funding appeal. Our Center for Media and Democracy has been hit very hard by the recession. Donations from individuals and foundations, our lifeblood, are down significantly. As a result, we've been forced to cut back our staffing. CMD needs your support to keep our work alive and well. Only a small fraction of the 25,000 people who receive our Weekly Spin actually contribute money to support our work. Please, be one of them. If you haven't given yet, do so now by clicking here and contributing online. Please, show you care and give now.