Wendell Potter's Blog, page 24

Reader-Approved Analysis From Wendell Potter

The columns that appear here each week are first published by The Center for Public Integrity.This post is a little different, as you’ll see. Here are some of the year’s most-shared pieces of commentary on the Affordable Care Act. In just over a week, 16 million Americans living without health insurance today will be able to [...]

Unions Chafing at Obamacare Provisions

Labor leaders say deals were cut with insurance, drug industries while they were frozen out. President Obama’s meeting Friday with labor leaders likely wasn’t a get-together he wanted. And it wouldn’t have been necessary if his administration and Congressional Democrats had given unionized workers the same consideration they gave business leaders and insurance company executives [...]

The Benefits of Obamacare in the Simplest Terms

While opponents obfuscate, supporters are explaining how consumers will be protect. Since 2010, the year President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, more than $400 million has been spent by the law’s opponents to turn Americans against it, according to an analysis earlier this summer by the Campaign Media Analysis Group at Kantar Media. That [...]

The Fiction of Obamacare ‘Rate Shock.’

Politicians want to scare us, but early returns indicate Affordable Care Act will save money for many. It’s been a while since you’ve seen a lot of stories in the media about Obamacare “rate shock,” hasn’t it? “Rate shock” stories were all the rage several months ago, like this one from Forbes last December: “Aetna [...]

Fear-Mongering Won’t Scuttle Obamacare

Opponents hope to kill health care reform by scaring people, but time is running out. Opponents of Obamacare know that time is not on their side. If they can’t kill the health care law by threatening to shut down the government, as some Republicans are suggesting, the game will be over, and they know it. [...]

Doing ‘As Much Harm As Possible’ to Florida’s Insured

Republicans continue to fight Obamacare in Sunshine State. First do no harm. That’s a tenet of medical ethics that future doctors worldwide are taught in medical school. If only the people we elect to represent us were required to take such an oath when they’re sworn into office. Because they aren’t, folks in Florida are [...]

Reality Check on the Affordable Care Act

Misleading information, sloppy coverage are confusing the public about Obamacare. Not confused enough yet about how much health insurance might cost some of us next year when the consumer protections in Obamacare kick in? Just wait. It’s likely you’ll soon be far more confused — and alarmed — than you already are. Take, as an [...]

Making the Tough Health Care Calls

Independent Payment Advisory Board may be best hope for limiting costly and ineffective procedures. For decades, the American Medical Association and other health care special interests have pretty much had their way with Congress when it comes to Medicare. Even though the program is run by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, members of [...]

Lordy, Lordy. Obamacare Repeal Vote 40

What could Republican lawmakers possibly be thinking as they make yet another attempt to derail Obamacare? Wendell Potter explains. – See more at: http://www.healthinsurance.org/blog/2... On what is always one of the busiest days of the year for members of Congress – the day before they begin their August recess – the House of Representatives is wasting time [...]

A Brave New World for Health Insurance

Old-line firms are ignoring ObamaCare’s exchanges, but entrepreneurs are taking their place. If you pay attention and listen closely, you can hear it. That’s the sound of the death rattle. Soon we’ll need to put the undertakers and gravediggers on notice. It is just a matter of time, no more than a few years, before [...]