New Book by Former Health Insurance Executive Tells of Industry Deception, Propaganda

[Downtown Lady]

A new book entitled Deadly Spin hits the shelves today; it is an insider's look at the healthcare industry. The book is written by the former Chief Corporate Spokesperson of CIGNA, and starts as follows:

"My name is Wendell Potter, and for twenty years, I worked as a senior executive at
health insurance companies, and I saw how they confuse their customers and
dump the sick -- all so they can satisfy their Wall Street investors."

In an article on HuffingtonPost.com, the author writes how the book describes the following:

• That the health insurance industry played a central role "in the fear-mongering and anger-mongering campaign against the Democrats' original vision of reform, which included a "public option" that would have competed against private insurance companies and which President Obama said early in the debate was necessary to "keep insurers honest." "

"Insurers were able to kill the public option and weaken the reform bill, but it couldn't kill it. Despite conventional wisdom, insurers didn't want to kill it because the requirement that all Americans buy private coverage if they're not eligible for a public program like Medicare and Medicaid will ensure their profitability for years to come."

"They do, however, want to weaken the bill further, which is why the industry funneled millions of policyholders' premiums this year into the campaigns of Republican candidates and round-the-clock advertising based on lies about the new reform law."

• "the meticulously planned and deception-based strategy the health insurance industry developed and carried out -- with help from one of Washington's biggest PR firms -- to discredit documentary maker Michael Moore and his 2007 movie, Sicko"

The health care industry "spent a big chunk of policyholders' premiums on a behind-the-scenes campaign to demonize Moore and to misinform Americans about the health-care systems in Canada and Europe that -- as Moore explained in the movie -- provide coverage for all their citizens and provide high quality care for them at much lower costs than we do in the U.S."

"The industry's high-paid PR consultants...assur[ed] the executives that the industry's trade association, America's Health Insurance Plans, would wage an all-out effort to depict Moore as someone intent on destroying the free-market health care system and with it, the American way of life."

• "how a huge share of Americans' health-care premiums bankrolls relentless propaganda and lobbying efforts focused on protecting one thing: profits"

• "how the industry's PR onslaught ... plays an insidious and often invisible role in our political process anywhere that corporate profits are at stake, from climate change to defense policy"

[emphasis mine]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wendel..._b_780961.html

http://www.amazon.com/Deadly-Spin-In...9343404&sr=8-1

[Downrivergal]

I work for a national insurer, I am insured by my employer and I cant afford to go to the Doctor.

[Gannon]

These folks now have unlimited powers, and their fiefdom will be secured by the Internal Revenue Service.


THIS is why I am against the expansion of Federal jobs in the city of Detroit.

Dark days are coming, we can avoid them if we are awake and aware.

[oladub]

If I may extend this a little bit to include life insurance scandals-

Prudential Insurance has a cozy relationship with the federal government. When a US service person dies in Iraq or Afghanistan, the family of the deceased is given a sum of money but not directly. Instead, the money is handed over to Prudential Insurance. If the family accepts the money over a period of years, for tax or other purposes, Prudential keeps the money. Whereas Prudential only pays a tiny amount of interest on the money to the family, Prudential meanwhile invests the money and makes up to eight times as much profit as it pays to the family of the dead service man or woman. The more Americans who die, the more profit this arrangement creates for Prudential.

Prudential Profits From Slain Soldiers With Help From Taxpayers
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...ia%0A%09%09%09

Top recipients of Prudential campaign funding paid for in part with this blood money.

Top Recipients, 2009-2010
CandidateAmountKind, Ron [[D-WI) $16,100Schumer, Charles E [[D-NY) $15,600Pomeroy, Earl [[D-ND) $11,250Menendez, Robert [[D-NJ) $11,100Baucus, Max [[D-MT) $10,300
http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summ...?id=d000000141

One might think that some of these politicians would return this money considering its source.

[TKshreve]

Just bought this book. Looking forward tot he read. Thanks DTL

[Wingnatic]

That story sounds alot like '' dead peasant or dead janitor '' insurance
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/...nce/p64954.asp

After years of haggling , a law was finally passed to ban the use of credit scores when determining auto insurance rates ........... wait ! it took no time for some judge to overturn that law now they can do it again . So if you've been with an insurance company say 20 years , the economy takes its toll on your finances and now your credit score isn't so good , they'll burn you even though you've paid them on time for years . What else in the future will be determined by your credit score . I can understand a car loan or any loan , credit card interests etc . but car insurance ? There is a heck of alot of people in Michigan who's credit score took a hit with job loss .

'' Family Plans '' with health insurance is a joke . It used to be if you have one person in the family that is sicker and used the insurance more , that one person could take care of the '' family deductable '' almost or by themselves . But now the rule is no ''one '' person can satisfy the family deductable , then why the hell do they call it a family plan lol . I can assure the insurance industry will come out on top .

[maxx]

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07102009/profile.html
"...Potter began his trip from health care spokesperson to reform advocate while back home in Tennessee. Potter attended a "health care expedition," a makeshift health clinic set up at a fairgrounds, and he tells Bill Moyers, 'It was absolutely stunning. When I walked through the fairground gates, I saw hundreds of people lined up, in the rain. It was raining that day. Lined up, waiting to get care, in animal stalls. Animal stalls.'.."

That's the sort of healthcare the Republicans will give the 98% of us who are not the super-rich.

[Downtown Lady]

This author, Wendell Potter, will appear with Michael Moore on Keith Olbermann tonight -- I would expect that to be an interesting conversation.

The show is on now [[8:00 p.m. Eastern) but their segment is still to come. The show repeats at 11:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m.

[Jimaz]

Thanks, Downtown Lady. I'm watching it now.

[Jimaz]

Devastating.

A rare eye-opener that cannot be credibly denied. How embarrassing must it be to be paid to defend these destructive corporate machinations that undoubtedly and secretly infect so many other industries because of the same corrupt profit motive.

Wendell Potter's self-sacrificing courage is exactly what is needed now.

[maxx]

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/...e_20101123/?ln
Michael Moore, the Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker, makes great movies but they are not generally considered “cliff-hangers.” All that might change since a whistle-blower on the “Democracy Now!” news hour revealed that health insurance executives thought they may have to implement a plan “to push Moore off a cliff.” The whistle-blower: Wendell Potter, the former chief spokesman for health insurance giant Cigna. He was quoting from an industry strategy session on how to respond to Moore’s 2007 documentary “Sicko,” a film critical of the U.S. health insurance industry. Potter told me that he is not sure how serious the threat was but he added, ominously, “These companies play to win.”...

[These aren't insurance executives; they're talking like mobsters.]

"...AHIP hired a public-relations firm, APCO Worldwide, founded by the powerful law firm Arnold & Porter, to coordinate the response. APCO formed the fake grass-roots consumer group “Health Care America” to counter the expected popularity of Moore’s 'Sicko' and to promote fear of 'government run health care.'...

In 2009, the nation’s largest health insurance corporations funneled more than $86 million to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to oppose health care reform. This year, the nation’s five largest insurers contributed three times as much money to Republican candidates as to Democrats, in an effort to further roll back insurance industry reform. Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y., an advocate of single payer health care, declared in Congress that 'the Republican Party is a wholly owned subsidiary of the insurance industry.' Potter agrees, saying the Republican Party has 'been almost bought and paid for.'...”

[maxx]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/03/he...er=rss&emc=rss

Officials Consider Requiring Insurers to Offer Free Contraceptives

[TKshreve]

It's sad that the realities of a book like this will be swept under the carpet. Not only by time, but by the heavy pockets of the insurance giants. Meanwhile, the Republican party will do anything in their power to quash any sensible progress we have made towards health care reform.

Until a single payer is made available [[and competitive with the insurance giants) we will remain under the thumb of the GOP and their back door buddies like Cigna and Humana.

On a brighter note I applaud people like Michael Moore and Wendell Potter who can peel back the cloak which leaves 95% of the citizens shrouded in mysterious darkness when it comes to their health and more. NOW is the time that we need whistleblowers like these to educate our population. Only then can someone make an educated decision at the ballot booth.

A rare eye-opener that cannot be credibly denied.

No it really can't. This book should be read by all students preparing to enter the makeshift world our elected officials have created over the last 40 years. That would be preparation.

[gibran]

and yes we want the free markert to take care of the needs of the many for the profits of a few/ when you fill your perscription and it rises 50 dollars [[ each script) in one month and the only answer is that policies change.. what can on we do.. I know the history of HC so don't confuse greed with effective policies that would help millions.. I would rather have a flat tax and stabl eHC than being blindsided everytime if fill my script.. We pay co=pays and our insurances still only cover 80 % if that in some cases.. I am tired of this opposition of HC.saying big government cant runit effectively..if you mean big insurance cant make profits then yes you are spot on...

[maxx]

http://wendellpotter.com/deadlyspin/
"...DEADLY SPIN is not just an exposé of health insurers but a stark warning that corporate spin is distorting our democracy..."

http://www.opednews.com/Podcast/Wend...10126-914.html
"...In widely covered testimony before the Senate Commerce, Science and Technology Committee in June of 2009, Wendell disclosed how insurance companies, as part of their efforts to boost profits, have engaged in practices that have resulted in millions of Americans being forced into the ranks of the uninsured. Wendell also described how the insurance industry has developed and implemented strategic communications plans, based on deceptive public relations, advertising and lobbying efforts, to defeat reform initiatives..."

"...Arnold and Porter law firm has long represented tobacco companies-- realized they needed more than law to win public opinion--
APCO worldwide has huge revenues-- these organizations use this PR firm and others to create fake grass roots organizations, like health Care America-- for health insurance and health care companies w ith a vested interest in keeping the status quo to scare people away from the movie.. Sicko. They had to have some fake group like health care america to counter the message..."