The Deadly Spin of the health insurance industry

The Deadly Spin of the powerful and politically-connected health insurance industry

Last night I read the introduction to a new book by a decades-long health insurance industry PR executive, Wendell Potter, called Deadly Spin (subtitle: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans).  The author is, he acknowledges, left-leaning in his views that the government should oversee the equal distribution of health care, where I am right-leaning and therefore in philosophical disagreement.  Having said that, I am moved by the author’s deep conviction that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, engineered largely by the powerful health insurance lobby, must be exposed for the sham that it is; I am furthermore intrigued that many of the observations and evaluations stated plainly in this text are exactly the same things I’ve been saying and writing for months and years.

12/7/2010 excerpt of my reading of the book’s introduction:

Many health care reform advocates naïvely thought that with Obama in the White House and Democrats in control of Congress—and with the health insurance industry claiming to be on the side of the angels this time—the stars had finally aligned for comprehensive health care reform that would lead, with the stroke of the president’s pen, to universal coverage.   They thought that achieving the goal of every Democratic president since Franklin Roosevelt—which every other developed country on the planet had achieved years ago—was all but inevitable.

It was because of this misplaced confidence, based to no small extent on the health insurance industry’s PR offensive, that I decided I had to speak out.

I warned members of Congress—in a series of appearances before House and Senate committees—that if the bill Congress ultimately passed included many of the so-called solutions insurers were “bringing to the table,” and if it did not include a public insurance option to compete with private insurers, it might as well be called the “Health Insurance Industry Profit Protection and Enhancement Act.”

1/27/10 my post, in reply to another post, on the “Grassfire Nation” Facebook page:

In the case of the current health care "reform" legislation, it would no longer be my choice of whether to have health insurance and from what company (not that there's a big choice now!), nor will I have the responsibility to be self sufficient.

My solution includes getting the insurance companies and big pharma out of the back room negotiations, for starters; tort reform; interstate commerce for health insurance; broader options in coverage (for instance, why should I have to deal with insurance every time I go in for a checkup when I really only need help for accidents, chronic illness, and hospitalization- one should choose the coverage and therefore how much to pay in premiums, deductibles, and out-of-pocket); and more ability for charitable organizations to help individuals.

10/13/09 my letter to US Representative Driehaus (OH):

Q: What's wrong with current attempts at "health care reform?"

A: The fact that health INSURANCE and health CARE are being addressed as if they are one in the same.  TWO DIFF THINGS!  Insurance reform needed BADLY, and separately from the issue of universal health care.

1/14/09 excerpt of my essay for health care class:

I’ve heard the saying that it is a shame that the richest nation on earth cannot take care of its own people.  In theory I agree with that statement.  Any attempts to eliminate this particular scourge need to be made using sound healthcare and business principles, outside of government control or design,  and without any motive other than providing the citizens (read again: CITIZENS) of this nation with the best basic healthcare that exists.  (12/7/10: I wrote this before I knew the intimate involvement of the insurance industry, but my statement implies excluding any kind of bureaucracy and without the primary motive of profit or anything aside from the well-being of patients.)