President Obama and Congress: If You Missed Wise County, Join Me in L.A.

Wendell, thank you so much for the good work you do. You've turned your experience in the belly of the beast into a valuable weapon in the fight for health care reform. I'm so glad you're out there.

I was amazed by your interview with Bill Moyers and at the end Iwas so disgusted and disheartened by the facts that the industry really does put profits over people.This is the biggest and best reason for reform to a single payer option.Thank you for being a real human being and for coming over to our side.

Thank you for sharing your perspective. I thought you were very effective in your testimony and in your series of recent media appearances.

Here is a piece from yesterday edition of The Commercial Appeal in Memphis.

It reminds us (as you did with your comments about RAM) that while there is a policy debate going on in Washington, there are real people behind this debate who are dealing with the issues of life and death everyday.

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/jul/29/let-down/

Hey Wendell,
I'm a CIGNA retiree and I'm so glad to see you out there speaking up.

I hope you can get on air somewhere to respond to Shawn Tully's July 24th article that's posted on CNNmoney site: 5 Endangered Freedoms. Most Americans covered by employer plans (or even individual plans) don't currently have any of the "freedoms" he/she is talking about. It's evident he/she is no expert on the subject, but he/she has written a piece that many lay people might believe.
They were talking about this article on CNN today. I believe it's meant to mislead people, so I hope you can read it and respond on air soon.

Thanks for all that you are doing.

Dear Mr. Potter -

I saw your interview on the Ed Show and just checked out your blog, which is moving to read. I hope that you will use all the skill you have acquired in communications to fight for proper access to health care for the many Americans who do not have or merely BELIEVE they have access now.

But, I am surprised that you were so unaware of the reality faced by so many. You mentioned meetings at CIGNA where you thought only of statistics and profits. You do not mention family or friends.

I have an MBA, a solid work history, and many friends with Master and PhD degrees, having worked many years at the director level in a research university. But, too many friends in their 50s and early 60s now face unemployment, dwindling or used-up COBRA, and little to no prospect of finding individual health insurance.

Of course, we lived in Cleveland, Ohio, which in 2007 lost more people than any other American city, according to US Census estimates. But that is not all that mitigating factor. As you drive around the US these days, look at all of the homes whose maintenance has been neglected for ages. We noticed this last week in NY State. We do not see this in Ontario, Canada, even in deeply rural areas or so-called inner cities (which do not really exist in Canadian cities). I would bet that many are not due to predatory lenders, but simply bankruptcy for medical reasons, which rose from 55 to 62% of personal bankruptcies between 2005 and 2006.

Your personal experience cannot be all that different from mine. Do you not have family members or friends who lost their professional positions, or began small businesses? Did you ever just ask them how they were coping?

One professor friend told me that years ago a friend of hers married her for just as long as it took her to get well after a catastrophic illness (due to which she had lost her job) before she entered academia and could sign up for insurance regardless of pre-existing conditions. Odd? Well, she is a lesbian who had already let everyone know by then. What a shame! My accountant lost his long-time faculty position--and benefits--when his university went belly-up; his wife took antidepressants after her parents' close-in-time deaths for a few months, and he is classified as obese, although he is in great shape and quite angular (heavy bones?), so they are uninsurable, even by AARP. I can go on and on... So, please start asking your nearest and dearest.

My husband and I are lucky. I moved the the US from Canada in 1983 at age 26, newly married, and I was shocked back then. I called the system barbaric when I visited home, said that combining where one works with how one accesses health care must have been dreamed up by someone on drugs.

Finally, we were in a position to move to Canada, so I sponsored my husband up here this year. What a difference! Don't let anyone tell you that this health care is terrible. It's not perfect, but here is what has happened to me so far:

January 2009: my official move, triggering a 90-day wait for the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP), the government provided insurance.

April 2009: received OHIP card; visit with family practitioner of my choice. (Which I scheduled in February, knowing when I would have insurance. She also had to accept me into her practice.) Blood, urine tests and EKG. Referrals to specialists, because I have pre-existing conditions, to bring info up to date.

May 2009: visit with chief cardiologist at major Toronto hospital (a top-ranked department in North America), with echocardiogram, EKG, more blood tests.

June 2009: visit with respirologist to ensure no drug interactions if I get lung infection, pulmonary function tests. Visit with family practitioner for skin problem that cropped up--seen on same day that I called(!). (Okay, that is rare timing.)

July 2009: overnight sleep study and follow-up with world-renowned sleep physician (somnambulist?) who specializes in treating heart failure patients. Referral to ENT for permanently enlarged tonsils. Regular densitometry test and my first-ever physical with the family practitioner.

August 2009: visit scheduled with colo-rectal surgeon preparatory to having regular colonoscopy.

September 2009: scheduled follow-up visits with cardiologist and sleep study specialist.

October 2009: regularly scheduled mammogram.

OHIP--the government plan--covers, without limits, deductibles or copayments: doctor visits, diagnostics, emergency clinics, hospital stays, inoculations, and much more. It does not cover prescriptions (though there is an excellent need-based government-run program), except for seniors (who pay only the dispensing fee), 25% of durable medical equipment, or purely cosmetic surgery. Private health insurance, included in many employers' benefits, covers these things.

And with all this, I am able to choose my own doctors. Patients do need referrals to see specialists, but then one can choose anyone in the province, which in this case, has over 11 million residents, so plenty of choice. In all this, my waits have been reasonable, and I could have seen these physicians sooner had I had the need.

Perhaps most important, doctors do not need to check with ANYONE before ordering a test, doing a procedure or anything else. They are presumed to be professionals and are in charge and all conversations between physician and patient are purely medical. There is little feeling of bureaucracy. I concede that their offices are not fancy, but they tend to have things like bottles of disinfectant everywhere for patient use, and face masks in doctors' and hospital lobbies. (They have learned much in Toronto from SARS.)

My only complaint: the parking is expensive in downtown Toronto where the specialists I have chosen are practicing! But I am interested in those who are doing research and publishing right now, alongside their practices, so big-city hospital/research university physicians are whom I need. So far, nothing else has cost me directly. I am seeking work, which is taking a while in this economy, but then I will begin paying for this health care out of my income tax--a great deal. And--yes, also so important!--my employer will not need to know anything about my health, as there is no information sent to employers about employee health care usage. There is simply no connection.

I could go on and on, but I do hope that you will read this and work hard for all those whom we left behind. All the best to you and I applaud and will follow your efforts.

Help! How can we get people mobilized to pressure our Congress men and women to be sensitive to the real needs of millions of people? I will write my senators and representatives tonight. We need everyone else to do the same!

Mr.Wendell Potter is truly a patriot who has the credibility to provide the OTHER SIDE of the story in these critical days!

Thank you for visiting Wise County and visiting with many of my friends and former colleagues.

Your July 31st interview with Bill Moyers on the Journal is a message that every American needs to hear.

You are a hero, Mr. Potter, in the sea of Profiles in Jellyfishism. I hope we can see the RAM on CSpan or here on CMD.

I write to people that you are the most telling spokesman possible against the bloodsucking Wall Street Health Scam Corporations with their odious medical loss ratios; RAPE (Rescind-And-Purge Evil); and fake insurance.

Do people really want Wall Street between them and their doctors? (Read up on medical-loss-ratios -- which means that anything they pay out to cover people is a loss to the stock-holders & punished by their Death-Star OverLords, Wall Street.) It disgusts.

You folks who still want Wall St. health scam insurance should go ahead and have your premiums pay Ron Williams' CEO Aetna's 24 million dollar annual compensation.

Urgent: To contact your representatives and leaders, you can go to http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt
for phone, fax, snail, etc.

For The White House, go to
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
for email, phone, etc. Phone will be busy. You need to persevere and redial a lot. Other leaders (Pelosi, Reid, Baucus, etc) are a lot easier to contact. Always be extremely polite and have a tone of more in desperate sorrow than in anger. (I also call to quickly thank the good guys, Rockefeller, Sherrod Brown, Anthony Weiner, Barbara Mikulski etc.)

I've escalated to asking the volunteer to ask the President to say this single, plain sentence: "I will VETO any bill which does not include a robust public option."

My gratitude to Wendell is deep and wide. My head would have exploded if he hadn't stood bloody up. Governor Howard Dean is great too. (You can sign his petition here: http://standwithdrdean.com/) Watch The Ed Schultz Show on msnbc too. He's huge for health reform. He'll be on vacation this coming week reading the entire HELP bill, but he is very fiery for real reform for We The dear Sheeple. Wendell Rocks.

I work for a large US corporation that uses CIGNA ironically and I've watched our benefits and the quality of coverage decrease over time, especially in the last few years as the company struggles to maintain costs. And I'm one of the lucky ones who has coverage.

Congratulations on your decision to bring the wealth of your knowledge to the service of people in need -- and thank you. You add much needed credibility to the health care discussion.

Seriously -- is it possible you could work with President Obama to create a compelling narrative that most American's can easily understand about what is being offered and what is at stake? So far the narrative has been left to the Republicans and as the only clear story out there, as wrong as it is, it's working against us all.

Wendell Potter,

Let’s not dispair. Consider the Butterfly Effect:

“the idea that a butterfly’s wings might create tiny changes in the atmosphere that may ultimately alter the path of a tornado or delay, accelerate or even prevent the occurrence of a tornado in a certain location. The flapping wing represents a small change in the initial condition of the system, which causes a chain of events leading to large-scale alterations of events.

Wendell Potter, you are that butterfly. I cannot imagine President Obama and Congress declining to join you at the RAM fair in LA.

I just watched online, Bill Moyers interviewing you, and also your testimony in Congress. I was both happy and depressed.

Happy, because an industry insider is finally fighting back against the crushing power of the insurance industry. Your message is right on taget.

Depressed, because I can't help wondering how we are ever going to overcome the industry's power, when so many members of congress are bought and paid for with insurance company profits. What chance does America have for real reform against such power?

Depressed, too, because your interview was on PBS. You need to be speaking out where everyone can see you, during popular TV shows like football games or Survivor or American Idol, that draw millions, not on PBS where you're already "preaching to the choir" (and sadly a very small choir at that). Sadly, I don't think money can be raised to put you speaking out where everyone will hear you.

In my spare time, I do volunteer work with an organization called Change That Works. I've personally spoken to about 60 people, and 55 of them had health care horror stories (many that brought tears to my eyes, like the young mom with breast cancer whose insurance company basically told her to either file bankruptcy or die and leave her kids with no parents), and we have sent these stories to congress. All of our Change That Works volunteers are sending stories by the dozens to Congress, but I fear these stories will fall on deaf ears since lobbyists have already bought them off.

But what sticks in my mind is the 80-year-old man who loudly argued with me that "There's not a damn thing wrong with health care in this country!" I wish he could tell that to my older brother. But sadly, my brother passed away last year at age 55. See, Richie was a musician, a brilliant composer of very original music. He had no health insurance, couldn't afford it. When he got bone marrow cancer two years ago, the best he could afford was some emergency-room chemo, and an odd procedure that extracts his bone marrow, spins it reall fast through a centrifuge as if that somehow magically eliminates cancer, and then puts his own cancerous marrow back into him. He went into remission for a couple of months, but since the cancer cells had never really been removed from his marrow, the cancer was soon back and more aggressive than ever.

I offered to provide a bone marrow trasplant, but without insurance, the treatment was too expensive so he couldn't do that.

One of my brother's chemo treatments, by an emergency room intern, went horribly wrong, and within 30 minutes after he got home, my brother was dead at age 55.

A tribute concert was held in his memory. 17 bands played in his memory, and alkl recalled him as brilliant and one band said the precision written into his music made it the most difficult they had ever played. I didn't see a single insurance comapny executive in teh audience, even though they and their greedy policies had killed him just as surely as if they had fired a gun at him.

I can no longer share childhood reminisces with Richie, or tell him what's going on in my life, good and bad, or hear about his life, his musical triumphs, and the world has lost a brilliant and innovative composer of original music. His music was never really my cup of tea, but I was always proud of him for his originality and creativity, and I miss him terribly.

By the way, his widow, my sister-in-law, also has no medical insurance! If and when she gets ill, that will be a death sentence for her, as it was for her husband.

How many more people must die for insurance company profits, before we get real reform? I love that you're speaking out, but you need forums where you'll actually get heard. Only when every American stands up will we have a power equal to the insurance lobby. You need to reach that 80-year-old man who can't tell my now-dead brother about how there's no problem with health care in the good old USA.

One more health care story: I was laid off in 2001, and there went my medical insurance! I got on a COBRA plan for me, my wife, and our son, at $850 a month. Being out of work, I had to raid my 401K to pay it, costing me not only the tax on the withdrawn money, but also an early-withdrawl tax penalty. I will have far less to retire on. But also, I could not set-aside any money for our son to go to college. During that time, I fell off a ladder and severly damaged my left hand in the fall; the cost to fix my hand was $65,000; I now have about 95% of my hand functioning back, but at the cost that my son did not go to college. I did eventually get another job and get medical insurance again, but not before huge financial costs to my retirement and my son's ediuctaion.

That 80 year old's voice keeps echoing in my head: "There's not a damned thing wrong with health care in this country!" The indutsry you were so long a part of has done a great job of brainwashing citizens and politicians, how do we fight back against that? Even though 55 of the 60 people I've talked to so far support health cae reform, sometimes the battle just seems overhelming, the odds stacked too heavily against us.

Keep fighting the good fight, and I will do the same.

Dear Mr. Potter,

I was intrigued by an interview I listened to on the radio the other day.

Personally I find myself smack in the middle of the debate on health care finance reform (NO ONE is talking about REAL Health CARE reform). As a (still) practicing emergency physician for 25 years I treat (and advocate for) patients (what we used to call members or insured lives). As a consultant for insurance companies I advise them on how to (ethically) control costs and identify billing abuse and fraud (unfortunately it exists). As a patient, and the husband, father, son, and friend of other patients I struggle with the health care "system" just like everyone else. As a (sometime) writer, I have written about the topic ("The Complete Idiot's Guide to Medical Care for the Uninsured").

While there is certainly plenty of blame to go around (on any given issue you can find fault with insurers, doctors, lawyers, hospitals, the media and - dare I say it- even the patients themselves). The question should not be who to blame, but rather how to improve health care and the financing of health care in the United States (and perhaps the world) in the 21st century.

If you and others in your organization have a genuine interest in solutions and would like to talk about it with someone who has been "in the trenches" I would welcome the discussion.

Sincerely,

Mark L Friedman MD FACEP FACP, Assistant Clinical Professor of Trauma and Emergency Medicine UCONN

I saw your interview on Bill Moyer's journal. I want to thank you. It is rare to hear from someone formerly in the ranks of Corporate America express such a heartfelt shift in thinking. As a former "insider" you have much to offer what is currently passing as "health care debate" in this country. We need more people like you who engage with the critical flaws in our system and who can point us in the direction toward creating a new one that will be more responsive to All Americans.

As an educator working in a school district, I have found the increasing costs that employees (even in the public sector) are asked to shoulder burdensome. So much so, that last year when my partner lost her job, we could not afford to cover her and the costs of COBRA were out of reach. We were faced with a daunting choice between paying our mortgage (and keeping a roof over our heads) or providing health coverage for our family. We chose the former.

My situation is only one of many, but it does go to the heart of the matter. In the most recent spat of scare attacks, those supporting the current system as the best possible argue that employees somehow have access through their employers. This notion does not square for a growing number of Americans.

I appreciate the perspective you bring to the discussion. I will be following your blog. I think every American should. I will do my best to get the word out.

With much appreciation.

cyclingjs

Mr. Potter- Your straightforward and honest assessment of the FOR PROFIT insurance industry is very important for ALL Americans to hear. A group of us has just begun to organize a MASSIVE MARCH on Washington, DC for Labor Day. We are new at this but feel that it is IMPERATIVE to have a HUGE turnout to show Congress some of the faces they are supposed to represent. Can you help us? Anything you could do or suggest would be appreciated. Would you be willing to be a speaker? Please help! Thanks

Thank you Wendell, for your integrity and your courage. I hope we, the American public, win.

For-profit insurance companies have a foremost responsibility to make profits for their shareholders. This makes the companies susceptible to unethical practices towards insureds and providers. However, there are not-for-profit insurers like some Blues plans, and Group Health, Kaiser, etc. They are owned by those who have the policies (co-op or mutual). Do you think they are just as unethical and immoral as the Wall Street driven insurers, or could they be the better 'public option'? Also, do you think the for-profit hospitals are just as ethically and morally challenged as the for profit insurers? Do you think the core problem is the "profit motive"? If so, Medicare, Medicaid, VA, are terribly broken as stated by the govt, yet there is no profit motive there. If the profit motive fuels inacceptable greed, and govt programs fuel unacceptable inefficiency that can't be sustained financially, which is worse? Besides the tax code, medical liability, and immigration needing reform in order to get healthcare costs under control, do you think the answer is single payor ultimately?

I get so frustrated and angry when I see the lies and the liars that must be getting hired by the insurance industry down there to tell you that our Canadian health-care system is second-rate and that we have to wait for months to get treated for our concerns. Thanks for at least trying to set the record straight. The fact is that if you were to poll Canadians on the thing we are moist proud of, to name something we have that the great and mighty US of A doesn't have...it would be our health-care system!---- by a wide margin!!

We look at the trouble down there getting basic treatment for injuries that could be life threatening, and shake our heads in amazement over why you all put up with a system that is little different than the one seen in third world dictatorships where ruling elites have the best care available while the people doing the actual work --- and thereby getting injured the most --- are the very people who struggle to get decent attention! It's mind-boggling that First World, apparently advanced people from a modern civilization, would reject something that the rest of us consider to be the inevitable result of a society that embraces basic, human decency!

I too was on the other side of the health care industry.. I sold health insurance to the self-employed from 1993-1999. My biggest frustration was seeing small businesses struggle to cover their own families, and perhaps offer limited insurance to their employees and/or families.
When it came to turning in a claim, the insurance companies did their darndest to get out of paying, unless the insured put in the pressure. It wasn't always that way, but 75% of the time.
That we need health care reform is a moot point. Having said that, what we don't need is a government run government controlled system. We don't need another 'Government Motors', i.e. GM. I have first hand knowledge and experience what government controlled heatlth care can do. I have four sisters that live in Canada, and my youngest sister was put on a waiting list for 9 months for a much needed surgery, during which time she got weaker and weaker, almost to the point where she couldn't function. In her early 30's, she didn't deserve to be treated that way. That kind of service we don't need here. If you want to see what it would be like, look at any government run agency now, and that will give you a good overview of what we would be looking at!
Let's talk reform, but let's not throw the baby out with the bath water. Let's not let this president continue his power grab! Federal government has turned into a bohemoth that is out of control. Our founding fathers would roll over in their graves if they would see what this country has become.
It's time to rein in our out-of-control federal government, and give the power back to the people and the states.

Great story! For more on the RAM•LA clinic, please see the official website for the clinic at: http://ramclinic.info/

Veterans, who are participants in a healthcare system, other than the one under which they retired (now it's Humana Healthcare... Tricare... etc) are required to make their claims under their companies' healthcare program. My company uses CIGNA, so, that' what I make as my primary healthcare system, under the rules. So, when I go to the doctor, etc, I show them my Cigna card and my retired military ID number and my Humana documentation... the problems start. Cigna, of course pays their party, but then, when attempting to make the claim via Humana... the ball gets dropped. I never had this problem when I was with just Humana, without the rules that my employer's system had to be used. It seems to me that, since the "nationalized" healthcare program of funding via Tricare/VA was better, that I should be allowed to use that vice the company provided inferior CIGNA healthcare program.... and yes, I thought my healthcare would be all paid for upon putting in 20 years and retiring from the military, but, alas, my recruiters never knew that the United States citizens would make me pay for my healthcare via an annual "minimal" fee, payable to Humana Healthcare (Tricare Prime).

So, yes, nationalized healthcare seems to be "better" but, one's own citizens can't be depended upon to keep their word, so, I can understand the misgivings about a national healthcare system, run by the citizens of the United States of America.

I like others here on your blog, would like to thank you. For years, I have been denouncing the insurance companies as profit making entities unconcerned with humans. I honestly think that taking them out of the equation of health care is the way to go. This country has become more and more divided into the 'haves' and the 'have nots'. The 'have' are more likely to be content because the current system works for them. But the human cost is too high and something needs to be done. You are using the background and information you have to create positive change. I respectfully thank you.

Mr. Potter,
I appreciate your work and courage to speak out.

My question is:

what in the world is going to stop the government from practicing the same greedy principles that you experienced in the private industry?

Thank you
Deb

"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."

Can you provide evidence to support this claim? And while you are providing evidence for this claim, would you please provide additional documentation about your statement that 50 million people do not have access to health care?

No way. Not a minute. Thanks Mr. Wendell Potter.