Health Care Reform Debate
The health care reform debate is very much in the headlines these days; as it very much should be. I was reading a post from Jim Lupori at KenmoreUndressed; and I spend almost 40 minutes viewing Bill Moyer’s interview with Wendell Potter.
Mr. Potter was a former Vice President with CIGNA Insurance and he recently left the firm. He was not pushed out nor did he leave on bad terms.
I came away with the thought that maybe capitalism isn’t the best tool for dispersing healthcare. Should healthcare be tied to corporate profits or even worse the price of a companies stock? The video gives a startling real life view of how the insurance companies operate and what they do to influence our elected officials.
Some of these photos came from Bill Moyer’s interview; that’s the reason for the play arrow on the photo.
I have decided to do a three-part series on Bill Moyer’s interview with Wendell Potter. The video is long and I thought a series of quotes and comments might do the trick.
Bill Moyer is one of the most respected journalists in America and his insights and ability to conduct an interview are legendary. The following are excerpts from the interview that took place on July 10th of 2009.
Mr. Potter was asked as to why he chose to step forward at this time.
“I didn’t intend to, until it became really clear to me that the industry is resorting to the same tactics they’ve used over the years, and particularly back in the early ’90s, when they were leading the effort to kill the Clinton plan.”
Toward the end of his tenure with CIGNA he started see with better eyes.
“I was beginning to question what I was doing as the industry shifted from selling primarily managed care plans, to what they refer to as consumer-driven plans. They’re really plans that have very high deductibles, meaning that they’re shifting a lot of the cost of healthcare from employers and insurers, insurance companies, to individuals. And a lot of people can’t even afford to make their co-payments when they go get care, as a result of this.”
The big moment came when Wendell visited the Wise County Fairground to see what the health care expedition was all about.
“I just assumed that it would be, you know, like a health…… booths set up and people just getting their blood pressure checked and things like that.”
“But what I saw were doctors who were set up to provide care in animal stalls. Or they’d erected tents, to care for people. I mean, there was no privacy. In some cases…… and I’ve got some pictures of people being treated on gurneys, on rain-soaked pavement.”
“And I saw people lined up, standing in line or sitting in these long, long lines, waiting to get care. People drove from South Carolina and Georgia and Kentucky, Tennessee… all over the region, because they knew that this was being done. A lot of them heard about it from word of mouth.”
“It was absolutely stunning. It was like being hit by lightning. It was almost…… what country am I in? I just, it just didn’t seem to be a possibility that I was in the United States. It was like a lightning bolt had hit me.”
“How do I step away from this? What do I do? And this was one of those things that made me decide….One of the books I read as I was trying to make up my mind here was President Kennedy’s “Profiles in Courage.”
“And in the forward, Robert Kennedy said that one of the President’s and his favorite quotes was a Dante quote that read, “The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of moral crisis, maintain a neutrality.” And when I read that, I said, “Oh, jeez, I……. you know. I’m headed for that hottest place in hell, unless I say something.”
If you are up to the task here is a link to the video of Bill Moyer’s interview with Wendell Potter.
The next post, in this series, will deal with the insurance industry’s strategy to fight healthcare reform. When you start listening to your Senators and Congressmen you will easily identify their connection to the industry. Is that a good thing?
July 16th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
Mark – Nicely done!
August 10th, 2009 at 7:12 am
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/weekend-opinionator-a-sick-debate/
August 7, 2009, 8:13 pm
Weekend Opinionator: A Sick Debate
By Tobin Harshaw
Comments:
12. August 8, 2009 1:57 am
I have lived in Europe, the USA (NYC and FLA) and currently live in Canada. I am a reasonably well-informed financial executive. I make my living as a capitalist.
I wouldn’t know where to begin re: the health care debate but I will make a couple of observations:
1. The USA has the finest health care in the world — bar none — provided that you have a no-limit gilt-edged money is no object health plan. Or you are rich. In my experience the 2 go hand in hand.
Failing such insurance or such boundless wealth how any rational human being with an IQ over 75 and an income below, say, $250k (forget the social compassion argument) could defend the existing system is beyond comprehension.
2. The outright lies — yes lies — that critics of health care reform spew is disturbing. The intentional misrepresentation of the Canadian and European models is outrageous. The Canadian model is flawed. There needs to be greater access to ‘private-delivery’ alternatives (which currently exist in some fields.) Having said that, since I returned to the province of Ontario in the late 1990’s until now the improvement in standards and care is staggering and in most cases matches anything I witnessed or experienced in NYC. Yes, health care is rationed here (hence a need for ancillary private care) but it is rationed everywhere — including the US. The exception being as per point #1 above. Per capita Ontario spends approximately 65% of what the consumers/taxpayers of the US/NY spend. However Ontario delivers 90% — or more — of the US standard. That is one very big financial/efficiency/productivity gap. That money gap goes to the US insurance companies, doctors, malpractice lawyers and lobbyists. The common canard about Canada etc is that “faceless bureaucrats make life or death decisions” (as opposed to, say, faceless HMO clerks). The truth is that in Canada the ‘gatekeepers’ who allocate critical care are the physicians themselves — the specialists.
3. Aside from private-payment plastic surgeons it is true you will not see many doctors in Canada driving a Rolls Royce. But you will see an awful lot driving a Benz or a Jag. Doctors here work hard and are well compensated. What we lack here is the concept that a medical degree should be attributed Venture Capitalist returns.
4. Lastly, a general observation/question (again, I really am a capitalist). Why is it that in the USA (a country I genuinely love) millions of people who barely make a living or are working class and/or just holding on to the ‘middle class’ are the most vocal — hysterical wouldn’t be an exaggeration — in defending the privileges of the rich and the corporate? Against their own self-interest I might add. Anywhere else in the western world the existing US health care tyranny would have people in the streets demanding reform — not ‘debating’ it.
— jon c