Wendell Potter's Blog, page 30

Who Wins With Medicare Advantage?

The big five health insurance companies have begun reporting their third quarter 2012 earnings and so far, they are pleasing their shareholders with profits that are better than Wall Street expected, in large part because they are doing especially well in one key area: Medicare. Over the past several years, the largest insurers — Unitedhealth, [...]

Voices of the Uninsured

A cascade of comments respond to Mitt Romney’s contention that emergency rooms provide the care that’s needed. When people find out I used to work for an insurance company, many of them ask if I can help find them a decent policy that won’t bust their family budgets. Many others ask if I would consider [...]

11/12/12 IWU: Bloomington, IL [Private]

10/23/12 Good Pitch San Francisco

WHERE AND WHEN Date: October 23rd, 2012 Time: 9am – 4pm Venue: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Lam Research Theater 701 Mission Street San Francisco, CA 94103

Myths of the Healthy Uninsured

Companies are manipulating data to make it appear many don’t want insurance. I understand where Mitt Romney was coming from when he said last week that Americans without health insurance don’t have to worry about dying at home. “We don’t have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don’t have insurance,” [...]

Romney’s Phony Answers to Tough Health Care Questions

Republicans advocate selling health insurance across state lines, but it’s already being done and it isn’t helping. During last week’s debate, GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney once again pledged to repeal Obamacare, but he was light on details about what he would replace it with, other than to suggest that his administration would encourage states [...]

11/9/12 Hope for Hearts Autumn Gala

Tickets & Information

Documentary Captures What’s Wrong With U.S. Health Care

If you want to get a clearer understanding not only of why the U.S. health care system fails so many of us but, more importantly, how we can transform it to make it the best in the world, go to the movies this weekend. Regardless of your political affiliation or your opinion of Obamacare, you [...]

Center Series Demonstrates Dangers of ‘Captured’ Regulators

‘Cracking the Codes’ reveals how Medicare is wasting millions due to special interest influence. The months-long Center for Public Integrity investigation into the Medicare program has uncovered a textbook example of the expensive consequences of  what’s known as “regulatory capture.” Doctors and hospitals are likely being overpaid billions of dollars, which is hastening the depletion [...]

ObamaCare’s Crucial Benefits

High-deductible insurance plans are squeezing consumers, but new health care law will cap out-of-pocket spending . Politicians who are promising to repeal ObamaCare won’t find any evidence in the Kaiser Family Foundation’s analysis of health insurance costs that the law has caused premiums to skyrocket, as many of those politicians have contended. On the contrary, [...]