President Obama and Congress: If You Missed Wise County, Join Me in LA

The insurance industry, its business allies and its shills in Congress are doing their best once again to scare us away from real health care reform, just as they did 15 years ago. Using the same tactics and language they did then, insurers and their cronies are warning us that America will be sliding down a slippery slope toward socialism if the federal government creates a public insurance option to compete with the cartel of huge for-profit companies that now dominate the health insurance industry.

One of the false images they try to create in our minds is of long waits for needed care if our reformed health care system resembles in any way the systems of other developed countries in the world--systems that don't deny a single citizen access to affordable care, much less 50 million of them.

Here is a real image, and a very scary one, that I wish those overpaid insurance executives and members of Congress could have witnessed before dawn yesterday: a thousand men, women and children standing for hours, in the dark, in a line that seemed to be endless, waiting patiently for a chance -- a chance because the need is so great many are turned away -- to get much-needed care from a volunteer doctor.

That is the scene they would have witnessed if they had bothered to come to the Wise County, Virginia, fairgrounds for the 10th annual Remote Area Medical (RAM)Expedition, a thee-day event in the southern Appalachians that grows larger every year as more and more Americans join the ranks of the uninsured and the underinsured.

Among those standing in line were people who thought they had decent health insurance until they really needed it. They found out the hard way that the policies insurers are forcing most of us into these days require us to put much more "skin in the game," as insurers say, so we will be more prudent "consumers" of health care.

When I came to the Wise expedition as a curious insurance company public relations executive two years ago, I was so shaken by what I saw that I knew immediately I was doing PR for the wrong side of the health care reform debate. A few months after that I walked away from job that paid me very well to be one of the industry's mouthpieces.

When I returned to Wise yesterday, this time as someone trying to pull the curtain back on despicable insurance industry practices such as "purging" people from insurance rolls when they become sick, I was even angrier, even more outraged at what passes for a health care system than I was in 2007.

Knowing the industry as I do, it takes extraordinary callowness and heartlessness to surprise me. I didn't think I was capable of being shocked by insurers' greed.

I was wrong. What I learned yesterday is that many people who stand in those long lines at RAM events (the Wise expedition is the organization's 575th), are people who have been told by their insurance companies that they should call RAM if they don't have enough money to get needed care because they can't afford to pay their out-of-pocket expenses.

That's right, insurance company bureaucrats, who are under constant pressure from Wall Street analysts and investors to spend less and less of every premium dollar they receive from us to pay medical claims, are telling their policyholders to seek charity care. They are telling them to go stand in long lines, in the dark, at events held once a year, to get the care they thought their insurance companies would pay for just so they can put more of their premium dollars in the pockets of their executives and shareholders.

When I heard that I asked how much money RAM, a nonprofit organization that depends entirely on donations, has received this year -- or any year for that matter--from the insurance industry. I knew the answer but wanted to ask it anyway. If you guessed nothing, you guessed right.

Back in the early '90s, when the insurance industry was spending millions of dollars, as it is now, to scare us away from any additional involvement of the federal government in our health care system, one of the executives I wrote speeches for quoted 18th century economist Adam Smith's famous line about the ruthless "invisible hand" of the market in calling for less, rather than more, government regulation of the industry.

He was right: the invisible hand has indeed been ruthless. Fifteen years after he gave that speech, far more Americans are uninsured and underinsured. Millions of people have lost their homes or filed for bankruptcy because they couldn't afford to pay their medical bills. Thousands of our family members and neighbors have died needlessly because they didn't go to the doctor or pick up their prescriptions because they didn't have adequate insurance.

On behalf of the millions of men, women and children who will suffer the same fate unless Congress passes real reform this year, I am issuing this invitation to President Obama and members of Congress: join me at the next RAM event, which will be held over eight days next month in Los Angeles (August 11-18).

Congress, if you must take your August vacation, spend a day or two of it -- or a few minutes of it, if that's all you can spare--helping to register the many thousands of your fellow Americans who will be standing in long lines, in the dark, waiting for the doors of the Forum to open. Chances are you visited the Forum in years past to see the Lakers play. Be prepared this time to see it fulfilling an entirely different function, and be prepared to look those folks in the eye and explain why you needed to go on vacation before passing health care reform. And explain to them why many of you are saying we just can't afford reform, so let's just call the whole thing off and let the private market continue to work its ruthless magic.

Remember, Congress: while you are on vacation, 150,000 Americans will lose their insurance, many of them will file for bankruptcy because of mounting medical bills, and at least 1,500 will die because they don't have coverage that gives them access to care they need.

I'm looking forward to seeing you in LA.

Comments

[ThinkOneNation]

Why didn't Dodd just go to his local hospital to get his recent surgery. And you expect him to care?

[bbrecht]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/slideshow/ALeqM5j8w9zX_4NeT2B2qNQnjCic-g6Pxw?index=3

Photos and news story about the RAM health fair in West Virginia

Please post these images everywhere. Yes, people in the United States do wait for hours for health care. And some die waiting.

[bbrecht]

Photos and news story about the RAM health fair in West Virginia

Please post these images everywhere. Yes, people in the United States do wait for hours for health care. And some die waiting.

[JacqueItch]

The point is, Wendell, that the insurance company execs and Wall Street power brokers and the members of Congress don't care about anybody but themselves:

They're narcissistic psychopaths who have risen to where they are because they do not have empathy for how their actions affect others. For them the profit is it. Anything else is contemptible.
Telling them to change spots is akin to asking the Leopard to do the same----
Good luck with that.

What is needed is a mass uprising by the lemmings---I mean electorate.
Like that's going to happen. . . . . . . the brainwashing of the masses has reached a level in the US that would cause Orwell to gasp. I am now convinced that the USA is going to go the route of past empires, and slowly atrophy on the vine having been rapaciously devoured from within by those psychopaths.

[wiccanwolfess]

This is a truly horrible article! It's horrible that someone who worked for an insurance company would come to realize what insurance companies here in America are really doing. It's horrible that OUR Congressmen and Senators would choose to close their eyes and ignore not only the truth, but the pain their constituents are living with EVERY day. It's horrible that the man that asked all of us to spend a day serving others in all probability will NOT spend even 1 of those 7 days in August showing all of us who voted for him that his healthcare plan really will give us what we need. And finally, it is truly unconscionable that MILLIONS of people in this country can't afford the healthcare they deserve when people like Cindy McCain, Laura Bush and Sarah Palin can spend hundreds of thousands on themselves but nothing on people who really need it.
How about it -- Cindy, Laura and Sarah, why don't you volunteer 1 day of the 7 to help people MUCH less fortunate than you?

[Realization]

The debate is characterized by a lot of disinformation on subjects that are quite verifiable.

May I suggest that you (and anyone else with a voice that might carry some weight) call for visits to RAM or an equivalent by:

insurance company executives and their families,

members of Congress and their families,

lobbyists and their families,

media personalities and their families,

church leaders and their families,

any other pertinent people.

Publicize the invitation­/challenge and list the names and those who actually visit.

Likewise, it is easy to ascertain how foreign health care systems work and the satisfaction levels, strong points, weak points etc. and compare/contrast with the U.S. system. Challenge those in the industry, etc., and once again their wives/families, to participate in a mission to do so. And document the entire thing. Challenge the media to go along.

And keep pounding on it.

[Raina Petkoff]

Mr. Potter, your interview on Bill Moyer's Journal was wonderful and thank you for taking on this issue. I do wish you'd appear on C-Span's Washington Journal. You are an important voice. I doubt we'll get any media coverage of this event but it would be wonderful if I was wrong. After all, cable news really does need to cover the Birthers and the Resolution to get Obama to apologize and other assorted nonsense. Why would they actually do a real report on the state of health care in this country.

[howeverfaraway]

We ALL ought to go to this, as a protest. Get at the very back of the line,let everyone actually seeking healthcare in front of you in line. Tell them you are requesting healthcare, but don't actually ask for any. Could you imagine if there were many ,many thousands in line at this event? Surely the press could not ignore it the way they did the health care raaly on the 25th of June.

[bbrecht]

Sounds like there will already be thousands in line-- we should be there with cameras and be our own press. Get the photos online. Interview those in line.

[GreatNews27]

Save your breath. NeoFeudalism is here to stay. We peasants do not deserve health care. That is only for the rich. If we die or fall ill, they will import someone else to replace us. There is no winning against an intrenched, indigenous, more-money­-than-Gawd­, organizations like insurance companies. They will win in court, in Congress, at the bank, at the doctor's office, and at the pharmacy. In other words, as long as they own the country, they can do damn well what they please to the serfs. So just relax and enjoy it. Death won't be so bad. Really.

[KarenM]

I appreciated your interview on Bill Moyers' program... and I hope you continue to try and get more traction for this issue.

You'd think that the GOP and the Blue Dogs who go on and on about things like entrepreneurial spirit would realize that without affordable health care, that spirit may already be a thing of the past for would-be small business owners.

Thank you for your efforts!

[thehoopoe]

Obama must attend this event in LA.

[ProgressiveAndProud1]

G0d bless you sir! .... I wish you would consider touring with the Prez to tell your story!

[marirose]

Excellent idea!!! Love your avatar too!

[ProgressiveAndProud1]

God bless you sir! .... I wish you would consider touring with the Prez to tell your story!

[naewing]

I just heard Virginia public radio WVTF's report on this this morning. They talked about people sleeping in their cars to be there early to get to see a doctor. They talked about the hard part of having to turn people away and having to call them with test results for things that they can't possibly afford to have treated.
This should be required listening for everyone in government. It is heartbreaking to see something like this in a country where the wealthy make obscene amounts of money and the response by many to the need for health care reform is that people should get better jobs if they want health care.
There are many many people who work very hard and do not have the care they need, some because their employers don't provide it and some because they have been dropped from or denied insurance.
This is inexcusable. If you are able, send a link to this article or the radio program to the representatives that still don't understand the need for health care reform. This is the best case for single payer health care there is because these people and many others like them are almost beyond the public option.

[naewing]

It would be nice if Huffington Post would replace the story about Sarah Palin on the front page with this one.

[marirose]

Hear, hear!

[Aaror]

I would like to ask a question that seems crazy at first. Are the insurance companies behind the current push for health care reform?
Seriously, as our economy declined, more pressure was put on businesses to cut costs, health insurance is number 3 on the list of company expenses-a good place to cut.
Meanwhile, more Americans lose jobs or health insurance, and go to the hospital as charity cases. More Americans go bankrupt, don't have home equity, etc, and can't pay health bills, so hospitals pass those costs on to the folks who have health insurance.
I'm not saying we should weep for the poor health insurance companies, but they are getting squeezed from both sides.
Now the initial plan Hillary promoted, now supported by Obama, was to make every American buy some sort of insurance. Sounds like a huge windfall to the health insurance companies to me!

[livingontop]

Sounds like a huge windfall to the health insurance companies to me!
That's true but the reason is to gigantically increase the insurance pool, spread the risk, and take away their ability to cancel or refuse for pre-existing conditions. Maybe not the best solution but it would help.