"They Dump the Sick to Satisfy Investors": Insurance Exec Turned Whistleblower Wendell Potter Speaks Out Against He

by via Democracy Now

Thu, Jul 16, 2009 7:45AM

Thursday, July 16, 2009 :As the debate over health care reform intensifies on Capitol Hill, we spend the hour with a former top insurance executive who's now exposing the industry's dirty secrets. Wendell Potter once served as the head of corporate communications at CIGNA, one of the nation's largest health insurance companies. We speak to Potter about his own transformation from industry mouthpiece to whistleblower, the health care industry's extensive PR and lobbying machine, the campaign to discredit Michael Moore's film Sicko, and the insurance industry's most pressing task: the fight against a public option, let alone a single-payer system.

As the health care reform debate intensifies on Capitol Hill, This whistleblower testified before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation last month.

Wendell Potter joins us today for the hour. Up until last year he was the head of corporate communications at CIGNA, one of the nation’s largest for-profit health care insurance companies. He served as CIGNA’s chief corporate spokesperson. He also once headed communications at Humana, another large for-profit health insurer. In 2007 Wendell Potter helped spearhead the health care industry’s campaign against Michael Moore’s movie Sicko. Today he is a fellow at the Center for Media and Democracy and is becoming one of the most prominent industry whistleblowers. I interviewed Wendell Potter earlier this week.

Wendell Potter, former head of corporate communications at insurance giant CIGNA. He is now a fellow at the Center for Media and Democracy.

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