Wendell Potter's Blog, page 11

Is Crony Capitalism a Big Reason for America’s Dental Health Care Crisis?

For an example of how Big Money in politics is causing real harm to average Americans, look at the practice of dentistry in this country. The United States is facing a dental care crisis for a number of reasons. First, dental care has become so expensive many of us can’t afford to go the dentist. […]

How to Reduce the Absurd Amount of Money Americans Spend on Health Care? One Community at a Time

Thinking big with Esther Dyson. If you’d like to meet someone who is truly “part of the solution,” someone who understands the problems of American health care in a way that few politicians do—and someone who is putting her money where her mouth is to get us healthier—meet Esther Dyson. Dyson is a former journalist […]

Presidential Aspirations for Medicare’s future

In case you missed a discussion of the senior safety net in the early debates, here’s a look at what presidential candidates are thinking. If you’ve watched all of the presidential debates so far – both Democratic and Republican – and you were waiting for the candidates to tell you if and how they would […]

The ‘Casino Effect’ on Your Health Insurance Rates

If you’re being hit with a huge rate hike on your individual health plan next year, your insurance carrier likely ‘placed bad bets’ last year. Minnesotans who get health insurance through the individual market last week became the latest in the country to get unwelcome news: the cost of their coverage will likely go up […]

Presidential Candidates in Fantasy Land Over Health Care

Candidates say this and that about health care, but it’s the insurers and pharmaceutical companies that call the tune. Presidential candidates from both parties are full of sound and fury about various aspects of the U.S. health care system, but unless we as a nation get serious about big money in politics, all the noise […]

Insurers Using Lobbying Muscle, Campaign Cash to Push Mergers

Firms pulling Washington’s power levers on Capitol Hill. The CEOs of Aetna and Anthem, the two big insurers that have offered to pay more than $90 billion to buy two competitors, Humana and Cigna, will testify before a Senate panel Tuesday, in an effort to persuade lawmakers that the deals will be good for consumers. […]

Insurers Say Private Medicare Plans Are Better, But We Really Don’t Know

Firms hold tight to data, so comparing their programs with traditional Medicare not possible. Health insurers have been telling us for years that their Medicare Advantage plans, which are federally funded but privately run alternatives to traditional fee-for-service Medicare, can provide better care—at lower cost—than the government. One of my priorities when I worked in […]

WalkerCare Gives Women Reasons to Worry Again

Walker plan envisions a return to an ‘open market’ that rolls back ACA’s consumer protections and ratchets up premiums for women. If women are beginning to get a tad concerned about what their world might be like if the next occupant of the White House is a Republican, they have more reason to worry now […]

Merger of Health Insurers Usually Leads to Big Payday for Executives

Policyholders end up paying more, according to studies. If regulators approve the recently announced mega-deals in which Aetna, Inc. would buy Humana Inc. and Anthem Inc. would buy Cigna Corp., will consumers benefit? Or will the winners be limited primarily to the executives and shareholders of the companies involved? If history is guide, the big […]

Why Pre-Existing Conditions Mattered … to Millions

Before Obamacare became law, Americans faced rejection of individual health coverage for any one of 400 medical conditions. The Republican candidates for president who say they’ll lead the charge to repeal Obamacare if they’re elected (that would be all 17 of them) might want to take note of the most recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll: […]