By Janelle Irwin -
Wendell Potter, the health insurance VP turned health insurance whistleblower, took a leap of faith. He told audience members at a talk in Clearwater Tuesday he was tired of being a tool, in more ways than one.
In 2007, Potter witnessed a mobile free clinic in rural Virginia near his hometown. What he saw – people being treated on the ground and even in barns – appalled him. He started to think maybe health insurance wasn’t the right place for him.
It wasn’t until 2008 that he made the decision to quit his cushy corporate job. The last straw came when his company refused an organ transplant for a young girl. They eventually approved the procedure, but it was too late.
Wendell Potter speaks in Clearwater on how he and his insurance colleagues deceived Americans. (Irwin / HealthyState.org)
“There was a lot of bad publicity and Cigna eventually did agree to pay for it,” Potter said. “On December the 20th Cigna did agree to pay for the transplant, but just a few hours later, Nataline died.”
Before his moral revelation, Potter blamed the uninsured for their own misfortune.
“I wrote that many, if not most, of the uninsured had chosen to shirk their responsibility to themselves and their families. It was their problem, not society’s,” he acquiesced.
Now Potter is an avid advocate for universal healthcare. He wrote a book about the behind-closed-doors practices he witnessed as a ranking professional.
And Potter isn’t alone in his quest for health care reform.
“I’m going to say it loud and clear: we need socialized medicine,” said Tampa nurse Susan Coffey. “We don’t need the middleman, they’re just money makers.”
It was tragedy that caused Potter to say enough is enough. As he spoke to a crowd of interested citizens, he learned of another victim of a flawed system.
Gail Gradel’s son was born with a congenital heart defect. He passed away just this year, without insurance that could have saved his life by providing continuing preventative care.
“My ex-husband had insurance for him until he turned of age and of course, that was the end of that,” Gradel said. “But, it’s a pre-existing condition, there’s no coverage, for any of the health problems.”
Now Potter is hopeful that the Affordable Care Act will aid those in similar predicaments. He said opponents have slandered the act, calling it the “socialization of health care” or calling some provisions “death panels” – a term that turns heads; exactly what it was meant to do.
“Back when I was in the insurance industry, my colleagues and I, we came up with [these terms] to scare the heck out of you,” Potter recalled. “We wanted you to believe that any reform that might hurt our company’s profits was a government take-over of health care.”
Potter’s book, Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR is Killing Health Care and Deceiving America, describes his experiences both before and after his break up with the health insurance industry. If nothing else, he hopes people will recognize “we are all one layoff away from being uninsured.”
To listen to the full radio story, click here.
This reporter can be reached at janelle422@gmail.com.
Comments
[...] Why Wendell Potter Turned Whistleblower “Wendell Potter, the health insurance VP turned health insurance whistleblower, took a leap of [...]