We Cared About Numbers, Not People: Former CIGNA PR Chief Comes Clean

"When you're in the executive offices... you don't think about individual people. You think about the numbers and whether or not you're going to meet Wall Street's expectations... That enables you to stay there, if you don't really think that you're talking about and dealing with real human beings, " Wendell Potter, former head of Corporate Communications for health insurance giant told Bill Moyers in his recently aired program.

Potter, who voluntarily left a life of corporate jets and managing media information, got a wakeup call when he attended a so-called health fair on a trip back home to the South.

"What I saw were doctors who were set up to provide care in animal stalls. Or they'd erected tents, to care for people. I mean, there was no privacy. In some cases -- and I've got some pictures of people being treated on gurneys, on rain-soaked pavement.

And I saw people lined up, standing in line or sitting in these long, long lines, waiting to get care. People drove from South Carolina and Georgia and Kentucky, Tennessee -- all over the region, because they knew that this was being done. A lot of them heard about it from word of mouth.

There could have been people and probably were people that I had grown up with. They could have been people who grew up at the house down the road, in the house down the road from me. And that made it real to me."

In his conversation with Moyers, Potter also revealed how health insurance PR execs sought to marginalize Michael Moore's film Sicko, dissuade Democratic legislators from addressing the concerns the film raised about the quality of American health care and the uninsured, and defeat health reform under Clinton.

Currently, these same insurance PR folks are "working relentlessly to kill off efforts to include a public insurance plan in the health care bill. Although three quarters of Americans polled support a public option, the industry is spending more than 1.4 million dollars a day to make sure it doesn't happen," said Moyers.

In the show Porter details the kinds of messages that that daily dose of $1.4 million will buy, recounting in the past how the industry sought to discredit Moore by characterizing him as a "radical" and "Hollywood film-maker."

WENDELL POTTER: They don't want you to think that it was a documentary that had some truth. They would want you to see this as just some fantasy that a Hollywood filmmaker had come up with. That's part of the strategy.

BILL MOYERS: So you would actually hear politicians mouth the talking points that had been circulated by the industry to discredit Michael Moore.

WENDELL POTTER: Absolutely.

The insurance industry's "war on Sicko" reveals the kinds of tactics and disinformation in use now to discredit a public option in health insurance reform -- and to line up Congressional support to defeat it.

Moyers asked about how the industry acts to influence Congress.

WENDELL POTTER: By running ads, commercials in your home district when you're running for reelection, not contributing to your campaigns again, or contributing to your competitor.

Potter also addressed the underlying PR goals:

WENDELL POTTER: The industry has always tried to make Americans think that government-run systems are the worst thing that could possibly happen to them, that if you even consider that, you're heading down on the slippery slope towards socialism. So they have used scare tactics for years and years and years, to keep that from happening

Watch the show here: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07102009/watch.html
Read the transcript here: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/07102009/transcript4.html

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Comments

[XME]

Even though we all knew this, it's refreshing to see someone actually ADMIT it.

Why should their be a public option? Only one answer matters: because saving lives and preventing illness should not be dependant making profits. If that's capitalism, I'll take socialism over it ANY day.

[CherokeeGirl]

I worked in healthcare and everything he says is absolutely true.

I worked in the Executive offices of a major medical group.

I got an education on how they negotiate contracts with doctor and insurance groups.

It's all about the money with the Marketing guys, that's for sure.

They want that yearly bonus. All true.

[CherokeeGirl]

THANK YOU VERY VERY VERY VERY MUCH Mr. POTTER!!!!! You chose correctly, to tell the truth. :)

[faicole]

If we allow a group of millionaire senators and representatives (all who have excellent health care courtesy of the American tax payer) to undermine the president's efforts at providing health care for all Americans then we deserve what we get. Attempts to provide health care as a basic right have been thwarted since the 60s and always with the same weak arguments.
1) It costs too much. (how much do wars and F-22 fighter jets cost? We seem find money for them.
2) Care will be dictated by government bureaucrats. Aren't insurance bureaucrats dictating costs now?
3) Public option will stifle the market and kill competition. Have credit unions stifled competition and put banks out of business?
We have to demand coverage for ALL our citizens. We should have learned something about the H1N1 virus scare. One sick, untreated person costs more in the long run and impacts us all!

[expired]

Health Care: The Public Plan Option

These Democratic Senators have NOT agreed to support it:
Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)

Senator Tom Carper (D-DE)

Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA)

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR)

Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL)

Senator Ben Nelson (D-NE)

Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA)

Senator Kent Conrad (D-ND)

Senator Max Baucus (D-MT)

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)

Senator Evan Bayh (D-IN)

Senator Mark Pryor (D-AR)

Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT)

These names are reported by The Hill here and here

Update: Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC) says she supports a public option.
Update: Senator Jeff Binghaman (D-NM) says he supports a public option.

You can also contact the White House and voice your opinion
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414

[CherokeeGirl]

I've tried badgering Feinstein, but apparently it hasn't moved her a "whit".

I hope she has a good moving company to move her out of DC and her fancy SF house.

Cuz, she is on the way out. Everyone I talk to says so. All democrats I've asked.

[Alison Rose Levy - Huffpost Blogger]

Thank you for this invaluable inforrmation. It's so important to allow our concerns to motivate us to action and contacting these folks is a very useful one right now.

Also people interested in being alerted to my blogs and reportage can sign up for my free ezine at www.health-journalist.com

[conlawprize]

i would think they would care about numbers. afterall, health care costs $$$.

[Peabodies]

Public option (Medicare for All ages) is what we need. Wendell Potter, formerly of CIGNA, was the truth teller, a powerful voice fighting back against the barrage of misinformation being funded by "Big Medico" (pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, health "insurance" cabal, HMOs, medical devices industry), and regurgitated mindlessly by NPR, CBS, Washington Post, etc.

The truth is that Canada, U.K., France, Spain, Italy, Australia, Taiwan, and most of the rest of the world cover all their populations for much less than what we spend, for better outcomes in longevity, infant mortality, and disease management. Their doctors are paid decently, the patients are satisfied, and none would exchange their health program for the one we have.

Another interview with Wendell Potter (in addition to the one on Bill Moyers Journal):

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Health-Insurance-Whistlebl-by-Rob-Kall-090707-638.html

[Alison Rose Levy - Huffpost Blogger]

Yes, it's hard for people to really digest the reality of America's poor health outcomes in an information climate unfavorable to in depth coverage of the causal factors you mention. Many thanks for the link!

[conlawprize]

im not sure you can blame poor "health outcomes" on the health care system when among our health imputs are ungodly high numbers of people presenting themselves to the doctor's office 100 pounds overweight and to hopsitals shot in the chest.

subtract violent death and our slovenly lifestyles (phenomena not seen in europe) our health care outcomes are fantastic.

our cancer survival rates blow away anything in europe.

[Nikolas1]

We need more people like Potter Wendell to come out.

[dexxjones]

start tossing these detached managers in prison for attempted murder, or some such and watch how fast things change. corporations are NOT people. until people start to be put behind bars for what is, essentially murder, and until corporations begin to be dissolved for bad behaviour (to big to fail my ass) we will continue to have this problem. ENOUGH.

[conlawprize]

wowowwowo you sound like stalin.

i admire your spunk, however misguided.

[dexxjones]

the tiny group of people who cause and profit from the misery of the rest of us should be called to account. thats not stalinist that's common sense. nice try though.