Wendell Potter is the greatest health insurance analyst on the face of the planet. Most of my views on healthcare reform were formed by listening closely to everything that he has to say on the topic; others were formed based on my own personal experiences, including:
- the outstanding coverage offered to employees of Fortune 50 companies (though it slowly becomes less outstanding each year),
- private insurance before the ACA,
- private insurance after the ACA (from a healthcare.gov type exchange, I’ve had both bronze and silver plans), and
- Medicaid.
If you don’t know who Potter is, you really need to fix that (see the end of the diary). I sincerely believe that if it weren’t for his testimony before Congress and other efforts in 2009, the ACA would never have been passed. As an example, watch Potter below as he works to educate the masses about the horrors of rescission, a common industry practice at the time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgz1crsj8jg
Potter recently penned an opinion piece that ran in USA Today: Take it from me, tweaks won't fix health care. Democrats should focus on Medicare for All.
“I can tell you firsthand that by focusing on a half-baked measure like a Medicare buy-in, Democrats would hand a huge gift to the private insurance industry while doing less than the bare minimum to help struggling businesses, workers, families and patients.”
It warms my heart to see Potter resuming his fight to expose the greed that is rampant in the insurance industry. His recent words are consistent with his low opinion of the legislation that was signed into law as the Affordable Care Act.
The dirty little secret about the ACA is that the biggest winner of all under it is the insurance industry. They are making a killing under it, pun intended. Potter walked away from a lucrative career as a highly paid insurance executive in 2009 in order to essentially become a whistle-blower on the industry. The Democratic Party used him extensively in 2009, but then ignored his key warning when they crafted the final bill. They also ditched one of their favorite talking points, that a government-run plan was necessary to “keep insurers honest.”
“It’s time for Democrats to stop proposing health care reform that relies on insurance companies to play fair. After two decades in the for-profit health insurance industry, I can assure you they never will. They have no interest in doing anything that might in any way jeopardize profits. Their only interest is delivering profits to their shareholders. From that perspective, the status quo is very profitable. For everyone else, not so much.”
Insurance companies are like crack addicts who are addicted to profit. They are ruthless vultures who are more than willing to allow people to die if it will pad their own bottom line. Our current “healthcare system” is an example of predatory capitalism run amok. The most important metrics driving our entire system are the stock prices of insurance companies, which is both fundamentally and morally wrong.
Business owners are struggling to provide health insurance to their employees, workers' take-home pay is shrinking as their premiums go up, patients are literally begging for their lives on fundraising platforms like GoFundMe, doctors and hospitals are drowning in paperwork dealing with insurance claims departments, and more than 80 million people lack adequate health insurance. That number is increasing every year. Reform is desperately needed.
Democrats have the chance to be the champions of that reform if they don’t waste their energy on half-measures. Instead of thinking about how they can make small tweaks to the health care system, they should start thinking about how to enact dramatic reforms that will assure universal coverage while reducing costs and encouraging economic growth. Voters and taxpayers are asking for Medicare for All. It’s time to listen.
Wendell Potter, the greatest health insurance analyst on the face of the planet, just said “Reform is desperately needed … Voters and taxpayers are asking for Medicare for All. It’s time to listen.” Will we as Democrats listen to him? Are we even able to listen to him?
I am reminded of advice I was once given about how to cook frogs. If you boil the water first and then put the frogs in, it won’t work because the frogs will just jump out. What you need to do is heat the water to a warm and comfortable temperature before you add the frogs. They won’t jump out because the water feels okay. At that point you slowly increase the temperature. As long as you don’t increase it too quickly, they won’t notice the temperature change or that they are being cooked alive.
The misnamed “Affordable Care Act” has done little to slow the cost of for-profit health insurance. Each and every year the costs continue to go up. Just like frogs in a pot, we are slowly being cooked alive. The system is not sustainable, it is a house of cards that is going to collapse, or a train steaming along that is headed for a brick wall. Change is coming, my friends, sooner or later. The only question is, will we make changes before or after all of the frogs are dead?
MORE ABOUT WENDELL POTTER
The most excellent place to learn about this amazing man is a Bill Moyer’s interview conducted in 2009 called “Wendell Potter on Profits Before Patients.”
WENDELL POTTER
With almost 20 years inside the health insurance industry, Wendell Potter saw for-profit insurers hijack our health care system and put profits before patients. Now, he speaks with Bill Moyers about how those companies are standing in the way of health care reform.
snip
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."
Thursday, Apr 11, 2019 · 7:03:21 PM +00:00
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Older and Wiser Now
In the comments below, I was asked: “which is more important to you, universal health care or the elimination of Health Insurers?”
I sincerely believe that the only way that universal health care is achievable is to put all Americans under one plan (though I might make an exception for active-duty military, I'm not sure). United we stand, divided we fall. Today's system has many different silos:large biz, small biz, Medicare, Medicaid, ACA plans, the list goes on. There are problems in each silo, but most people only understand what is going on in their own silo. Can problems with Medicare get fixed? No, there aren't enough voters on Medicare. Can problems with small biz insurance get fixed? No, there aren't enough voters on small-biz plans. As I see it, when we are all on a single plan,including folks in Congress, we will have MORE political strength to get the problems fixed. If you truly want to see improvements to Medicare, you need to get MORE VOTERS ON MEDICARE, because there is strength in numbers.
I am also morally opposed to a silo-type approach to universal health care, because the quality of care in different silos will vary. Do persons working for Fortune 50 companies “deserve” to have better health care than persons working for small businesses? I think the answer is no. Do persons under the ACA “deserve” to have worse insurance than persons working for small businesses? Again, no.
Finally, I anticipate that private health insurance will continue to be available under Medicare For All, though it's role will be dramatically reduced. Medicare For All will be a certain basic setof services, it will not cover everything, such as elective cosmetic surgery. I am comfortable with for-profit insurance companies covering services that are elective, rather than matters of life and death.