Blood Profits

I've said before that health insurance companies in particular make profits very simply: they take in as much as they can in premiums and reduce costs by doing everything they can to deny claims. When they deny claims, and people cannot get treatment because of lack of money, they suffer. Sometimes, they die. When the Right screams about dire warnings of "rationed care" under a government plan, understand that your health care is already rationed in this country. It is rationed by your ability to pay for it, specifically it is rationed by whether or not the health insurance company will pay the claim.

If you say to yourself "Zandar, you're being overly simplistic, it's much more complex than that" my response is "Don't take it from me, take it from ex-CIGNA Healthcare exec Wendell Potter," a man who worked in the industry for fifteen years, eventually ending up as the company's head of corporate communications as the man behind the company's public relations campaign. Potter left the company voluntarily. Here, he talks to Bill Moyers last Friday about the reasons he left:



Potter was CIGNA's PR point man on the Nataline Sarkisyan liver transplant debacle. Potter mentions the case at the end of the above segment, Nataline died in December of 2007 because CIGNA decided deny her claim for a liver transplant that could have saved her life. After pressure from the California Nurse's Association, CIGNA finally approved the treatment a week later...but it was too late to save Nataline. She died literally a few hours after CIGNA relented when her liver failed. UCLA Medical Center rejected two available donor livers because of CIGNA's refusal to pay. Either one could have saved Nataline's life.

Wendell Potter left CIGNA soon after.

The most interesting part of the interview is here, involving the campaign to discredit Michael Moore's scathing documentary on the health care industry, "Sicko".

BILL MOYERS: So what did you think when you saw that film?

WENDELL POTTER: I thought that he hit the nail on the head with his movie. But the industry, from the moment that the industry learned that Michael Moore was taking on the health care industry, it was really concerned.

BILL MOYERS: What were they afraid of?

WENDELL POTTER: They were afraid that people would believe Michael Moore.

BILL MOYERS: We obtained a copy of the game plan that was adopted by the industry's trade association, AHIP. And it spells out the industry strategies in gold letters. It says, "Highlight horror stories of government-run systems." What was that about?

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. If there were a broader program like our Medicare program, it could potentially reduce the profits of these big companies. So that is their biggest concern.

BILL MOYERS: And there was a political strategy. "Position Sicko as a threat to Democrats' larger agenda." What does that mean?

WENDELL POTTER: That means that part of the effort to discredit this film was to use lobbyists and their own staff to go onto Capitol Hill and say, "Look, you don't want to believe this movie. You don't want to talk about it. You don't want to endorse it. And if you do, we can make things tough for you."

BILL MOYERS: How?

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.

BILL MOYERS: This is fascinating. You know, "Build awareness among centrist Democratic policy organizations--"

WENDELL POTTER: Right.

BILL MOYERS: "--including the Democratic Leadership Council."

WENDELL POTTER: Absolutely.

BILL MOYERS: Then it says, "Message to Democratic insiders. Embracing Moore is one-way ticket back to minority party status."

WENDELL POTTER: Yeah.

BILL MOYERS: Now, that's exactly what they did, didn't they? They--

WENDELL POTTER: Absolutely.

BILL MOYERS: --radicalized Moore, so that his message was discredited because the messenger was seen to be radical.

WENDELL POTTER: Absolutely. In memos that would go back within the industry — he was never, by the way, mentioned by name in any memos, because we didn't want to inadvertently write something that would wind up in his hands. So the memos would usually-- the subject line would be-- the emails would be, "Hollywood." And as we would do the media training, we would always have someone refer to him as Hollywood entertainer or Hollywood moviemaker Michael Moore.

BILL MOYERS: Why?

WENDELL POTTER: Well, just to-- Hollywood, I think people think that's entertainment, that's movie-making. That's not real documentary. 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.

BILL MOYERS: You'd hear ordinary people talking that. And politicians as well, right?

WENDELL POTTER: Absolutely.

BILL MOYERS: So your plan worked.

WENDELL POTTER: It worked beautifully.

When insurance companies say no, sometimes people die. The full interview is here with the full transcript here. Do yourself a big favor. Watch the whole thing. It's absolutely stunning. They are terrified of Obamacare. They will do anything they can to kill it.

Remember Wendell Potter when you hear Republicans and Centrist Dems say "We don't need a public option."

Republicans oppose the high cost of health care reform, as well as key components of Democratic proposals including higher taxes on the wealthy. However, some Republicans expressed support for taxing employer-provided benefits of the most expensive health insurance plans.

Translation: Democrats drop the public option completely, we'll let you tax some benefits on employer-based coverage. Nothing changes. Health insurance companies continue to profit off suffering.

No public option, no reform. Remember that. Remember Nataline Sarkisyan. Remember Wendell Potter.

Remember why we must have a public health care option.