Whistleblower tells of America's health care nightmare

Wendell Potter, a former senior executive at the giant health insurer Cigna, is telling the truth about how the industry confuses its customers and dumps the sick.  It's all part of the effort to maximize profits that will please Wall Street investors.

Potter's testimony lays bear the cruel practices of the for-profit approach to health care.  Speaking June 24 before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, Potter said:  "To help meet Wall Street's relentless profit expectations, insurers routinely dump policyholders who are less profitable or who get sick.  Insurers have several ways to cull the sick from their rolls.  One is policy rescission.  They look carefully to see if a sick policyholder may have omitted a minor illness, a pre-existing condition, when applying for coverage, and then they use that as justification to cancel the policy, even if the enrollee has never missed a premium payment. . . . . They also dump small businesses whose employees' medical claims exceed what the insurance underwriters expected.  All it takes is one illness or accident among employees at a small business to prompt an insurance company to hike the next year's premium so high that the employer has to cut benefits, shop for another carrier, or stop offering coverage altogether - leaving workers uninsured.  Thie practice is known in the industry as 'purging'."

The July 26th edition of The Guardian tells the story of how Potter went from being a high-flying health insurance executive to an advocate for health reform.  It all started while Potter was attending a family reunion in the mountains of eastern Tennessee.  There he witnessed a free clinic in operation - an act of charity by local doctors and pharmacists - and was shocked by what he saw.  "It was overpowering," said Potter.  "It was just more than I could possibly have imagined could be happening in America."

Potter, who now works for the Centre for Media and Democracy in Wisconsin, says the insurance industry is afraid of the kind of health reform proposed by President Obama and that's why it is fighting so hard.  "This is a very wealthy industry and they use public relations very effectively," said Potter.  "They manipulate public opinion and the news media and they have built up these relationships with all these politicians through campaign contributions."

According the The Guardian article, the insurance industry is reportedly spending $1.4 million each day to defeat health reform.  Potter says it's all very familiar to him; he saw it in action during the early '90s when the Clintons attempted to lead a reform effort.  "They are trying to delay action.  They know that if they keep the process going for months, and turn it into a big mess, then the political impetus behind it will lessen."