Send To Friend 
CaptionTweet This! http://mync.com/site/42505/
Former Cigna Health Insurance Executive Wendell Potter apologized to a crowd in Raleigh that he took part in deceptive public relations campaigns to defeat health care reform in the 1990s.
Potter was the featured speaker at NC Policy Watch’s Crucial Conversation luncheon Tuesday afternoon.
"In this country there are seven very large for-profit companies that one out of three Americans is enrolled in one of their plans. It's a cartel in many ways. A lot of (non-profit) Blue Cross Blue Shield plans in other states have such a dominant share, there's very little competition. We need to have a public option to compete against this oligarchy," said Potter.
A public option would give government the ability to sell insurance in competition with private insurers.
Opponents suggest it would squeeze out private insurers.
Supporters say it’s the only way to keep private insurance costs in check.
“You’d get better value and that would force insurance companies to also give you a better rate and price health plans more competitively," said Potter.
Potter left his 15-year career in corporate communications at Cigna and is now a Senior Fellow at the nonprofit advocacy group the Center for Media and Democracy.
So how about North Carolina insurance giant Blue Cross and Blue Shield?
The company's leadership supports health reform, but not the public option.
“We believe in building on what works—that is, the employer based system that already serves 160 million Americans. We believe the government has a role to play in assisting those who cannot afford insurance on the private market,” said Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Communications Executive Lew Borman.
The Senate Finance Committee killed the public option in its bill mark up Tuesday, but it’s still alive in House legislation.
Following Potter’s address, a group representing the NAACP, NC Justice Center, NC Health Care For America Now and the AFL-CIO delivered more than 5,000 petitions to Senator Kay Hagan’s office in Raleigh supporting a strong public option for progressive health care reform.
See the highlights in our NBC 17 News story in the video monitor above.
Report Abuse 
Comments
By Bill Watson on 09/30 11:47 PM
A Public Option Designed to Succeed. Let’s have a debate and a CBO report showing the advantages for consumers, employers, and the federal budget of establishing a new dual public/private choice health care system, using proven VA style government systems for delivery of high quality low cost health care, coupled with a sales tax funding plan for the public option, as part of a new dual system, in which everyone could choose which system, either free public or private pay private care, they would like to use. Let’s compare the dual system to the reforms proposed by Mr. Baucus’s legislation, which will use the government to force consumers to purchase manditory insurance, to pay for health care services run by the most expensive care system in the world, and whoes patient outcome results are far from the best. Mr. Baucus’s plan will produce obscene profits for the health care industry while bleeding the life blood out of consumers, employers, and taxpayers. With a true Public Option: Seniors and everyone choosing public care could have it no restrictions, no insurance, no co pays, free period. Employers who select public care for their employees would not be required to pay for or have any further involvement with health care. Taxpayers and everyone would save hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Going back and forth between free public, and user purchased private care, would allow unlimited choices, ultimate freedom, and always free public care would be available.
Post A Comment
Commenting is not available in this section entry.