Health Care Reform Update: Insurance Insider Tips From Wendell Potter’s Blog
by Alta Price, M.D.
While skimming articles at BuzzFlash, I happened upon “Health Care Industry Adopts Big Tobacco’s PR Tactics 7/13”, which led me to Wendell Potter’s blog at the Center for Media and Democracy. Potter first came to my attention when he was interviewed by Bill Moyers on PBS, an interview Blog For Iowa has already covered (you can read it here). Although I watched the whole Moyers interview, and found it fascinating, I think Potter’s blog posts are even more helpful to grassroots health care activists. A recent blog post, The Ultimate Irony: Health Care Industry Adopts Big Tobacco’s PR Tactics, reveals the tactics the insurance industry is using against us. From Wendell Potter’s blog:
“When you hear insurance company executives talk about how much they support health care reform and can be counted on by the President and Congress to be there for them, that's the campaign they want you to be aware of. I call it their PR charm offensive.”
“When you read or hear someone other than an insurance company executive – including members of Congress – trash some aspect of reform the industry doesn’t like, such as the creation of a public health insurance option, there's a better-than-even chance that person is shilling for the industry. That’s the PR campaign the industry doesn’t want you to know about.”
You know what? I fell for the “charm offensive!” I have heard people say, and I believed it, that one reason we will get reform this time is because everyone is at the table and wants change, even the insurance industry. But what are they doing behind the scenes? When Senator Chuck Grassley speaks against the public plan option, is he speaking from the insurance industry’s talking points, or is that really what he thinks? (Honestly, I don’t know. Senator Grassley has been our ally in many health care battles, so what is going on now?) How about the Democratic Senators against the public plan option? Is the 1.4 million dollars a day the health care industry is spending to block reform convincing them to shill for the insurance industry?
But let’s say the insurance industry actually does want reform, and it’s not just the “charm offensive.” What kind of “reform” do they really want? You can read Wendell Potter’s take on that at another blog post, Obama’s False Friends of Health Reform.
Thank you, Wendell Potter. I will be checking your blog frequently!
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