Health

The Health Care Industry vs. Health Reform

by Wendell Potter — June 24, 2009 - 12:12pm
  • Topics: Corporations, Health, Lobbying

    • I'm the former insurance industry insider now 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 ar

    CMD's Wendell Potter Exposes Health Insurance PR

    by John Stauber — June 24, 2009 - 12:05pm
  • Topics: Corporations, Health, Public Relations

    • Wendell Potter came to the Center for Media and Democracy in May as an admirer of our work exposing corporate front groups, lobbyists and PR manipulators. He should know, he was one of the best PR executives in the health insurance business, CIGNA's Vice President of Corporate Communications until he had a major change of heart.

    Today Wendell is CMD's Senior Fellow on Health Care, testifying before the US Senate Commerce Committee. His passion is health care reform and his expertise is exposing how the powerful industry he once helped run is manipulating and managing the health care reform debate raging among policy makers, the public and in the media.

    Insurance Companies Profit Twice from Smokers

    by Anne Landman — June 8, 2009 - 1:41pm

    A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine reveals that life and health insurance companies in the U.S., Canada and Great Britain invest heavily in tobacco companies. Tobacco use is a major cause of fatal lung diseases and cancer, and is known to elevate the risk for heart attack and stroke.

    Main Source: 
    The Province (Canada), June 5, 2009

    A PR Campaign to Make BPA Plastic Fantastic

    by Diane Farsetta — June 3, 2009 - 1:50pm

    On May 28, industry executives met "to devise a public relations and lobbying strategy to block government bans" of bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical found in cans and plastic containers.

    Main Source: 
    Washington Post, May 31, 2009

    Bristol-Myers' "Celebrity Patient" Goes off Script

    by Sheldon Rampton — May 23, 2009 - 8:48pm

    The Wall Street Journal has published a revealing story about one of the seamier sides of the drug industry's marketing campaigns: paying patients to offer testimonials about their drugs. As health industry observer Merrill Goozner explains, the story came to light because a "celebrity patient" had a "falling out with his corporate sponsor, Bristol-Myers Squibb.

    Main Source: 
    Gooz News, May 14, 2009

    Lawsuit Against Smokers and Spinners Proceeds

    by Diane Farsetta — May 20, 2009 - 10:54am

    A class-action lawsuit charging major tobacco companies and a public relations firm with a "decades-long campaign of deceptive advertising and misleading statements" can proceed, ruled the California Supreme Court.

    Main Source: 
    Reuters, May 19, 2009

    The Nicotine Addict's Dilemma

    by Anne Landman — May 15, 2009 - 3:52pm
  • Topics: Economy, Health, Tobacco

    • A recent study in the Journal of Preventive Medicine found that young people who feel action should be taken against the tobacco industry are more likely to want to quit smoking.

    Swiftboating Healthcare Solutions

    by Diane Farsetta — May 13, 2009 - 3:36pm

    Richard Scott, "a multimillionaire investor and controversial former hospital chief executive, has become an unlikely and prominent leader of the opposition to health-care reform," reports the Washington Post. But the public relations firm promoting Scott and his front group is a usual suspect.

    Main Source: 
    Washington Post, May 11, 2009
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