Bill Moyers did a great interview with Wendell Potter, who was until he resigned the head of corporate communications at CIGNA, discussing the insurance industry's strategy for fighting publically-funded health care.
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.
His story reminded me of Ray Anderson (Founder and Chairman of Interface, the world's largest manufacturer of modular carpeting) in The Corporation. I highly recommend that documentary to anybody who hasn't seen it yet, but you can also hear Ray's story when he was interviewed on The Hour With George Stroumboulopoulos.
Anderson's epiphany came when he read Paul Hawken's The Ecology of Commerce and he realised that he was "a plunderer" whose company was significantly contributing to the destruction of the environment. For Potter, it was when he went to a "health care expedition" held at a fairground in his home state of Tennesee, and saw hundreds of his fellow Americans standing for hours in the rain to be treated in animal stalls, tents, or even laying on gurneys in the rain.
You know, certainly, I knew people, and I talked to people who were uninsured. But when you're in the executive offices, when you're getting prepared for a call with an analyst, in the financial medium, what you think about are the numbers. 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's what you think about, at that level. And it helps to think that way. That's why you-- that enables you to stay there, if you don't really think that you're talking about and dealing with real human beings.
Potter explains that, when you recognize that those numbers recognize real people, that includes a number that's very important to insurance companies and their investors -- their medical loss ratio.
An insurance company's medical loss ratio is the portion of each dollar paid in insurance premiums that is used by the insurance company to pay claims. The lower the number, the higher the percentage of their income that the companies can spend on other things, like shareholder dividends, employee salaries, marketing and public relations, etc.
How do the companies lower their medical loss ratio? According to Potter, they do it by rescinding policies, raising premiums while reducing services, dumping customers, and denying as many claims as possible. By doing these things, they can raise profits as well as their share price. They can also raise the number of real people who are uninsured or underinsured, and the number of real people who will get sicker and/or die because they can't afford adequate medical care. That's the status quo they're fighting to defend.
Potter explains that one of their strategies is to try to convince the American people that they should fear government involvement in health care.
To demean and scare people about a government-run plan, try to make people not even remember that Medicare, their Medicare program, is a government-run plan that has operated a lot more efficiently. And also, the people who are enrolled in our Medicare plan like it better. The satisfaction ratings are higher in our Medicare program, a government-run program, than in private insurance. But they don't want you to remember that or to know that, and they want to scare you into thinking that through the anecdotes they tell you, that any government-run system, particularly those in Canada, and UK, and France that the people are very unhappy.
As an American who now lives in Australia and has experienced the Australian publicly-funded Medicare system, it's easy for me to see through such scare tactics. Hopefully more former industry-insiders like Wendell Potter will do as much as they can to help others see through them as well.
You can watch the Moyers interview with Wendell Potter in an online video clip, and there's a transcript available as well.
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Comments: 28
I started watching this interview this morning but fell asleep. I'm glad this information is getting out before the changes are made in the health care system. I was concerned but now I think our reps will have to think about what is being said.
Unfortunatly, Trish, there's a lot of misinformation out there, and a lot of it is being spread by industry groups that can afford to throw around a lot of money to ensure that their messages are heard.
You're being too polite Wil - 'misinformation'? Try straight out lies.
Surprisingly I just watched this on our PBS affiliate and was appalled at what Potter said. I had suspected some of this but to hear it from the horses mouth, so to speak was amazing. We need universal health care. Single payer. Period. If it hurts the insurance companies so be it.
Thanks for the comment, Jim. I agree!
I think you meant to say "horse's ass", Jim.
It's easy for any person with any kind of common sense to see through such scare tactics. It's amazing to me, Will, that while the GOP supporters claim to be pro-business, many of them actually have no idea of how successful businesses are run. Everything he says is true. I worked for an insurance company whose business included Property and Casualty. They were going through some serious lawsuits at the time with groups in TX concerning asbestos claims and they were trying to negotiate a settlement. Right before an analyst call with Wall Street, the CEO let 1,500 employees go in the P&C area, so that they could transfer that money to an escroe acc't and tell the analysts that they had $X amt put away in case they had to actually pay the claims. Their stock price stayed high as a result, they settled the claims out of court for an undisclosed amt, then proceeded to hire back many of the workers that were let go.
It's an incredible numbers game and human beings DO NOT ENTER INTO THE EQUATION. This paradigm should not be anywhere near health care. ALL people need decent health care during their lives - it should not be a crap shoot, nor should the denial of such care work into a company's bottom line.
I think it's more of a "Shell" game than a numbers game, unfortunately, either way, people lose.
I haven't watched it yet, I have it DVRd, and am going to watch it soon.
Whatever you call it, I think we agree that it sucks and it's not in the interest of end-customers.
I DVRd it, too, Elizabeth, and will watch tonight. Although, I find that most Bill Moyers shows are too depressing, as they deal with actual facts rather than propaganda. There is SO much propaganda right now being spewed all over the media it's almost criminal.
Sheryl, the only explanation I can think of is that they want to believe the scare tactics. Just like they want Obama to fail, and they want the country to suffer, so that they can then blame that suffering on Democrats, liberals, or just on government in general. It's bizarre stuff, but as we know, it's worked for them in the past.
The bottom line counts - nothing else. Many otherwise intelligent Americans will argue until the cows come home that it invites a socialist system and will cost us more than we can afford as a country.
I've worked for the top three American Insurance Companies so I know better. I've witnessed the shenanigans behind closed doors.
If it was up to me I would force Fox News and all the other News channels on radio and TV to broadcast several of his statements - several times throughout the day, until they get it into their thick heads.
Insurance Companies are in business to make a profit, they want to maintain the status quo and they do not view their policy holders as human beings who are in pain, but as numbers - premium payers to be wooed or discarded as needed.
I'd want to hear and see and interview with him on Oprah.
"The bottom line counts - nothing else."
Which sucks the big one when your death helps their bottom line.
"Many otherwise intelligent Americans will argue until the cows come home that it invites a socialist system and will cost us more than we can afford as a country."
Bizarre, ain't it? And the weird thing is that many of these same people consider themselves "patriots" and won't hesitate to tell you how the U.S. is sooooooo much better than any other country, and how Americans are better than everybody who's not an American. Yet at the same time, they apparently believe that the U.S. is incapable of ensuring that anybody who needs medical care can get it, whether they have the money to pay for it or not. Other countries can do it, but for some reason they don't think the U.S. can. I wonder why?
The way our government has run things as of late, I'm not so sure that I trust them to run health care. We do indeed need some change, but government run health care?
And how the heck is the government gonna pay for it? Buy freshly printed U.S. Bonds with freshly printed money? Borrow more money from China? Tax sodas? Personally, I don't like any of those options.
So you would rather have for-profit companies deciding on whether or not you receive health care? You would rather your premiums go to pay for executive salaries and bonuses, stock dividends and massive marketing, advertising, and lobbying campaigns? Who do you think pays for those? YOU are paying $1.4m/day to convince representatives in DC that a public OPTION is the worst thing that could ever happen to the US.
Unbelievable. The propaganda is so pervasive, and people like yourself are totally buying into it.
They still buy the wars too.
"The way our government has run things as of late, I'm not so sure that I trust them to run health care."
Governments in many other countries seem to manage OK, Tim. Do you think the U.S. government is somehow inferior?
"And how the heck is the government gonna pay for it?"
I would imagine that the government will pay for it with tax dollars. Here in Australia we pay an a Medicare Levy, set at 1.5% of our income, with exemptions/reductions for low-income earners, and an additional 1% Medicare Levy Surcharge for high-income earners (those earning over $75,000).
Based on my personal experience, it works pretty well. I'm happy with the medical care my family has received over the years, and it's nice not to have to worry.
" So you would rather have for-profit companies deciding on whether or not you receive health care? "
Rather than the U.S. Government.......hell yes!
" You would rather your premiums go to pay for executive salaries and bonuses, stock dividends and massive marketing, advertising, and lobbying campaigns? "
And just how do you think that will change under a Government funded health care system? Instead of money going into the pockets of executives, it will go into the pockets of politicians and government officials. And if you don't think that it will, then where the hell have you been for the past 20 years?
" Governments in many other countries seem to manage OK, "
Those are other countries, not the U.S. What works in one place doesn't necessarily work in another place. This also applies to sports and business. Just because something works for the New York Yankees doesn't mean that it will work for the Chicago Cubs. Just because something works for Wal-Mart doesn't mean that it will work for K-Mart.
"Do you think the U.S. government is somehow inferior? "
Well now, the U.S. Government doesn't have such a good track record as of late, does it? So Wilbur, I must ask...do you trust the U.S. Government?
" Based on my personal experience, it works pretty well. "
So how is it working out for the elderly there in Australia?
"So Wilbur, I must ask...do you trust the U.S. Government?"
Yes Tim, I trust that the U.S. government is capable of adopting a publically-funded universal health care system that works better than the current system.
"So how is it working out for the elderly there in Australia?"
Again, based on my personal experience of "the elderly" (in other words, elderly people that I actually know, and have talked to about it), it's working out pretty well. It's certainly working out for them better than the U.S. system is working out for old people that I personally know (my parents and other relatives, friends' parents, etc.) in the U.S.
I watched that the other night and had to choke back my vomit. I hadn't even heard about that poor little girl that died because her insurance company didn't feel that her life was worth the cost to the company's bottom line. I really am stunned that there are so many who refuse to see through the ruse.
" I hadn't even heard about that poor little girl that died because her insurance company didn't feel that her life was worth the cost to the company's bottom line. "
That's a very sad and unfortunate story, but is their any guarantee that such a thing won't take place under a Government health care system?
First off......A shout out to my hillbilly Tim.....Yeah...I'm back MF'er with a vengance....Secondly, I wouldn't trust the gov't to run shit the way things have been going lately.....Yeeee---haaawwwww. We got us a black president..... big deal huh????....Health care, Iran, Iraq, Afganistan, Russia, Saudia Arabia.....Wake up America, would you have voted for him if he was white......I don't think so!!!!!
" First off......A shout out to my hillbilly Tim.....Yeah...I'm back MF'er with a vengance....Secondly, I wouldn't trust the gov't to run shit the way things have been going lately "
Perhaps the reason I have Chevy Impalas following me around everywhere I go.
Welcome back coon ass!
It's nice to read about people with integrity and a conscience for once. Thanks, Wil.
You're very welcome, Aniko. :)