Wendell Potter writes: "If more Americans paid attention to the fate of neighbors and loved ones who have fallen victim to the cruel dysfunction of our healthcare system, they would see through the onslaught of lies and propaganda perpetrated by special interests profiting from the status quo."
Two-month-old Karina, the child of uninsured parents, receives a vaccination at a low-cost clinic run by the Rocky Mountain Youth Clinics in Aurora, Colorado, 07/28/09. (photo: John Moore/Getty Images)
It's Time to Get Outraged
05 July 11
ne of my favorite bumper stickers reads, "If you're not outraged, you're not paying attention."
That's sort of how I feel about the healthcare debate. If more Americans paid attention to the fate of neighbors and loved ones who have fallen victim to the cruel dysfunction of our healthcare system, they would see through the onslaught of lies and propaganda perpetrated by special interests profiting from the status quo.
Since I started speaking out against the abuses of the insurance industry, I have heard from hundreds of people with maddening and heartbreaking stories about being mistreated and victimized by the greed that characterizes so much of the profit-driven American healthcare system.
Many other people send me links to articles or broadcasts they have seen. When I worked in the insurance industry, we called them "horror stories," and for good reason. The circumstances people often found themselves in were nightmarishly horrible. As an industry PR guy, my mission was to keep as many of those horror stories out of the media as possible. We didn't want the public to know.
It occurred to me recently that Americans are not sufficiently outraged because they either don't hear these stories or, if they do, don't believe how commonplace they are or that anyone they know could experience the same misfortune. Or they might hear that more than 50 million Americans don't have insurance because they can't afford it or, in many cases, can't buy it even if they can afford it, but they don't stop to think that real human beings make up that abstract 50 million figure.
The reality is that these stories are indeed commonplace. Almost all of us - regardless of our age, income, job or political affiliation - are just a layoff or plant closure away from being uninsured, or a business decision beyond our control from being underinsured, or an illness away from being forced into bankruptcy and homelessness.
My life changed when I really started paying attention a few years ago. I now have a new mission - to help people become aware of and understand what is going on around them. So, starting today, I will be sharing on an occasional basis some of the horror stories like the ones I used to work so hard to keep out of the press. My hope is that people will begin to remember why reform is so necessary and why repealing "ObamaCare," despite its shortcomings, is not a real option.
You might have heard about this first one. Even if you have it bears retelling. A few weeks ago, a man in North Carolina was arrested for robbing a bank for $1 so he could get government-provided healthcare in prison.
Fifty-nine-year-old Richard James Verone has a tumor in his chest and two ruptured disks, but no job or health insurance. He is one of those 50 million Americans I mentioned earlier. Verone told reporters he asked for only a dollar to show that his motives were medical, not monetary. Because of his "preexisting" medical conditions, no private insurer will have anything to do with him. He wasn't destitute enough to qualify for Medicaid, the government program for low-income Americans, or old enough to qualify for Medicare, the government program for people 65 and older.
Verone and millions of other Americans who have a history of illness are considered by private insurers to be "uninsurable." Insurance company underwriters consider them an excessive risk to profits. Even insurers that operate as nonprofits, like many Blue Cross plans, refuse to sell coverage to a third or more of Americans who apply because they've been sick in the past. Many of the people they turn down are children who were born with birth defects.
Shortly after Verone staged his robbery, one of the contestants in the Miss USA pageant revealed during a nationally broadcast interview that she is homeless. Why? Her sick mother could not pay both the rent and her mounting medical bills. Twenty-three-year-old Blair Griffith was evicted along with her mother and brother just weeks after she won the title of Miss Colorado.
"I didn't know what to think" when sheriff's deputies starting putting the family's belongings in garbage bags, she said. "It was shocking. And then I saw my mom on her knees crying and begging them, 'Please don't do this to me' and then looking up at me and saying, 'I'm so sorry.'"
Blair's mother, a widow, lost her health insurance soon after suffering a severe heart attack. She was unable to get another policy. She and her children eventually had no choice but to join an untold number of other Americans who are homeless because they can't pay their medical bills. Many are bankrupt as well as homeless. Medical debt is the leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States.
The third story I want to share with you hasn't made headlines. Most such stories never do. A few days ago a young woman who said she'd been raped sent me an e-mail to ask if I might be able to help her find insurance.
"I am in the process of hiring a broker to help me find insurance, but it is just very overwhelming and sad," she wrote. "I have been denied by three major companies or had riders attached that will not cover anything related to HPV, cervical cancer, medications, or treatments. Basically, they will do nothing for me."
She wrote, essentially, to beg for help.
"I have never talked about what happened (to me), but I am learning that this is too big to handle on my own. There are so many barriers, and while I consider myself an intelligent person, I am by no means an expert when it comes to dealing with insurance agencies. I will take and am grateful for all the help that I can get."
I hope I can help her, but there is no assurance that either I or a broker or anyone else for that matter can help her get the coverage and access to care she needs. She is an apparent victim not just of rape but also of an unjust system that has devolved into seemingly intractable dysfunction while we were not paying close enough attention.
These are just three people whose lives have taken a tragic turn because of America's profit-driven private healthcare system. There are literally millions of other stories, many of which are even more maddening and heartbreaking.
When the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) is fully implemented in 2014, the number of uninsured Americans will be reduced by 30 million, and many of the insurance industry's most egregious practices - including refusing to sell coverage to people with preexisting conditions - will be outlawed.
Let's hope that there will be far fewer horror stories after 2014. But the new law is just the beginning. We still will have a long way to go before we have universal coverage, like every other developed country in the world.
Universal coverage, in my view, is the ultimate goal we all should share. Remember this if nothing else: Until we achieve it, you and your loved ones could easily be facing your own horror stories.
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Americans will never understand these issues. There is no honest debate in the mass media. The issue is hopeless. Obamacare will make the healthcare system worse because it will only increase the power of private insurance companies.
Michael Moore's Sicko should have created a revolution. But it did not. Almost no one paid attention to it. There's no hope for Americans.
Of course, what with all the economic trauma, easily seen as contrived, and folks now so concerned with putting food on the table and keeping a roof over their heads, the villainaires and their Kochsucking minions believe they've won and now rule all us sheeple slaves.
But, they may have one hell of a suprise coming - not Tea Party style caca, but a real McCoy, American Revolution II. Karlroving MSD (manipulate, spin, distract) us constantly they do, but they cannot blot out common sense and word of mouth.
Let's scream and fight like hell, folks. There's lots to restore: rule of law, free press, right to vote and have that vote honestly counted, all rights we like to believe we still have, but have been stripped from us. And there's vital rights we do not have, i.e. healthcare for all as a human(e), just like all the other developed nations in the world today provide.
Ain't gonna happen tomorrow, but it'sa comin': AMERICAN REVOLUTION II.
I think it's a very troubling indicator of our culture that some of our most fabulous building now are courthouses and stadiums- oh yes, we have state of the art PRISONS here, also.
We are Rome....and Germany in a way. This is fascism here in the U.S.A. no matter what any team of linguists comes up with.
The real problem is that our institutions have been captured by wealthy interests, Republican dickwadery, and Fox News. And of course, a large swath of ignorant voters doesn't help. But neither do sweeping generalizations of 300 million people. Most of us do not share the teabagger view on health care or much else. Unfortunately, teabagger demands suit the interests of corporate America, so that is what everyone sees on the news.
And these are NOT insurance companies only - $ half million doctor "specialist" are the norm.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surgeon
Health Care was declared officially by the rest of the world after WWII to be a basic human right. That is in all countries but the U.S.A., who is now imitating the people we fought. Did you know the main supporters of the GOP are big Mussolini fans.... omg
All the industrialized nations have health insurance, what a disgrace that the U S does not provide this for it's citizens.
Thank you Mr. Potter for speaking out.
Poor Dumb American Sheep.Believing what you are told by your lying masters, the rich, the greedy, the uncaring, all those who are in power.
The state of healthcare and education in this Country is shameful at best. Lets built tanks, war planes, bombs and rockets instead of a healthy population of informed, educated adults.
But we're numba one.
No Virginia we're waaay down the list.
Think that insurance companies covered their profits be significantly raising insurance premiums.
Thank you Mr. Potter for responding to the enlightenment you received at that clinic.
So in reality the insurers are not selling 5 thousand policies when they contract with an employer, they only sell one plan. Eliminating pre-existing persons does not really impact the cost of the plan, it only adds to their profit line. In fact, if that person never switched employers, the insurance company may have covered him anyways under their plan with the previous employer.
This is a corrupt, sick system; and it must be fixed. Obama was correct, it is the first rung and that is why they broke him on it.
Hence, just a very few GLOBAL Corporations now own and control almost all media enterprises in America and now own most of the Constitutionall y Mandated, so-called 'Free Press'... right along with most of the major pipelines for 'Free Speech'...
WE ARE NOW FAR LESS REPUBLIC AND FAR FAR MORE CORPORATACRACY...
AND, it is because WAY too many Americans have been 'MEDIA-TALKED' into going along with it.
'LESS GOVERNMENT' is perhaps the biggest flim flam in human history. Resulting in the largest transfer of wealth and Power from the vast majority, 98% ..., to the smallest minority, 2%..,. in all of human history without firing a shot and by only using relentless, coordinated soundbites on 24/7 cable tv and radio disguised as 'reported' NEWS YOU CAN USE.
In spite of the evidence, federal and state law enforcement, along with major media, continue to ignore the evidence... pleadings by literally thousands of intelligent professionals who are election integrity activists notwithstanding .
Latest example is Wisconsin's recent Supreme Court election.
You don't know that because it's one of those incredibly significant scientific revelatons that was scrubbed from textbooks, made secret by governments and developed with—your money.
You also keep paying the enormous cost of keeping it secret. It's possible to treat anything with negative energy, low frequency, low voltage radio transmission. Defense intelligence has been proficient with the method for decades. Mad enough yet?
Write to Washington and demand this crucially important technology be disclosed. I do.
The American classified version is called "the Q device." It's said we have a method of producing a 3-D laser hologram that allows the operator to observe internal changes in the patient made by this method in real time.
Negative energy was brutally removed from the mathematical physics of electrodynamics in the U.S. in 1934 because of the mass destruction potential of the operative technology, which scenar cosmodic's promotional literature doesn't mention.
The technology employs Dirac's theory and equation, his theory of everything. Scenar cosmodic is legal and FDA approved. My attempts to come to terms of purchase have failed so far, and I'm not sure you can acquire it in this country.
It's a fiendishly clever approach to health care. There is strong support for it in the literature. American doctors are hardly interested, since it doesn't come from the pharmaceutical industry with huge batteries of tests, industry funded and analyzed.
It moves the cause of health care ahead a thousand years if not two. Two people I'd have treated died last month as I scramble to get this thing that should be cheap and available everywhere.
What happens to the sick person during the 6 months of uninsurance while waiting to become eligible for this program? Cancer treatment? Appendectomy? Broken bones? Psychiatric emergency due to lack of medications? Oh, well... just survive for 6 months, and if you have any money left you can pay it all for this insurance.
Oh, and I forgot... if you are treated in an emergency room during this time, you'll have the bill collectors at your door to take everything you have.
Those "internment camps" Michele Bachmann likes to talk about? The persistent rumors about box cars being fitted with restraints to transport hundreds of thousands? If, god forbid, such things should ever come into existence, it is far more likely to be the "conservative" method of dealing with "useless eaters" than any consequence of "Obamacare".
I just hope that people will start seeing through the barrage of misinformation that will still be coming.
A comprehensive universal single-payer system that covers _every_ person in the United States for health, dental, vision, and mental health needs is the ONLY way we are going to bring cost down and improve the basic health of all Americans.
People kept claiming (inaccurately and out of context) that Canada's system and Britain's system are terrible and that people sometimes have to wait years for treatment. Ask any Canadian or Brit if they would like to swap their system for the mess we have, and they'll tell you, "NO WAY!"
The fact is, unless you make massive amounts of money, to afford a "Cadillac" plan that _really_ covers you, and have the money to pay huge deductibles for whatever ails you, you don't actually have coverage that's worth anything, even if you have an employer's plan.
I had insurance at my last job, but didn't have the money to pay for dental work I need, because the insurance barely covered anything. Why bother paying for it if you can't afford to use it?
Health "insurance" is the biggest hoax perpetrated on the American People in the past 50 years. Reagan's "trickle-down stupidity" is the the second biggest.
Sadly, there is simply not enough money to pay for everyone's every health need so rationing will be necessary in either private health care insurance or government provided health care insurance.
The public policy question is which systems give patients better control over health care decisions. The feds will provide a one-size-fits-all system that is unlikely to match patient preferences; the private sector, if relieved of the current regulatory burdens placed on it by state insurance commissions, would at least provide patients with a limited range of options: expensive policies that cover more or less expensive policies that cover less.
I'd rather be responsible for the amount of rationing being done with my health care than allow some bureaucrat in Washington make the decisions for me.
Lee Nason
New Bedford, Massachusetts
One catch is that doctors don't make such high salaries in Europe or Canada as they do in the US. I think we'd have a hard time getting a lot of doctors to work for $250-300K a year. Canadian doctors max out at about $200k. Still, there are a lot of doctors in the US who don't make that much now. But the profit seekers would probably not go to medical school anymore. For me, that would be good.
The Insurance companies and banks are grabbing all the $$ that doctors used to make. I would much prefer that Doctors get paid a lot with reduced taxes instead of Hedge fund managers.
Stop arguing facts with someone that cannot do 1st grade arithmetic.
We already pay to cover everyone. As an example; increasing expenses like deductibles do not actually lower the cost of health care for individuals. All it accomplishes is to shift the cost of my health care. An uncovered individual is also covered, but only in the most expensive way imaginable. And that does not include the paperwork. Oh my God, all we do is paperwork for insurance. Add up the hours you spend every year. There is a cost in that.
So, like I said, don't bother arguing with a person that cannot do arithmetic.
Medicare for all that is funded adequately so that the gaps in coverage are eliminated is the answer.
Darn - I didn't know they sold anything but Home-owners policies. At least that's where I got mine from
Outraged? Hell I live in Arizona where the stupidity flows like a polluted american river!
I applaud you and support your great work... I too try to educate people regarding this Health Care Extortion by for profit health insurance industry... Thank you
I recently met a guy from England who said he loved this country but could never move here. I asked why and he said "Because you let your people suffer and die. I could never do that." That pretty much sums it up. What's most amazing is most of the anti-healthcare screamers also claim they are Christians. A very deep ring of hell awaits them.
You can pay for tests, specialists, if you choose... otherwise you may have to wait for your doctor to prescribe them thru national healthcare.
No one is turned down, left bankrupt, or sent home to die.
America needs to get with the program! The Republicans need to stop preventing Obama from helping all Americans from such atrocities as cited above.
America is being held captive by corporate greed that the Republicans buy into.
Give it up and think of your fellow man for a change!
http://www.californiaonecare.org
First, Vermont and California, then the nation! Publicly-financed insurance, privately-delivered care. Everybody in, nobody left out!
All one must do to gain proof of this folly is Google the health rankings of all the industrialized nations on our small planet..include infant mortality, death rates, how much each citizen must pay out of pocket for their health care, the wait times to see a doctor (which is distorted beyond belief). See people, FACTS are what truly count, not slogans, not voices raised in shrill tones, not repeating the outright lies that are fed to the mouthpieces of the health care industry. FACTS. Get some now, they may actually eventually save your life.
I'm not at all enthusiastic about the Obama plan of mandating that American citizens patronize by perpetually paying premiums to these insurance pirates. However, my experience with trying to get Social Security Disability benefits for my wife has been just about equally daunting in complexity, so I don't necessarily think that the vaunted public option would be our salvation. Both Democrats and Republicrats have continued to sell their services to the business establishment, at the great expense of their constituents.
Any sane observer would see that you guys are all trying to fix the game. You run a race then put a brick wall right in the path of your opponent. When he doesn't win, you proclaim that your opponent is incapable of running a race.
Funny how only Obama's detractors claim that persons voted for him to prove we are not racists. I gues I must be a racist then since I voted for Kucinich in the primaries. Or maybe I am a sexist.
I dare all you people that love America but hate Americans and hate our guests too, to allow the Democrats to fashion their own economic recovery plan. If it sucks as much as you say it will, the next election is all yours!
You won't because you tried that once with Bill Clinton. The economy didn't tank, did it?
Health care is a human right and should not be tied to employment, forcing us to become an indentured Labor force.
We need to take the O-ffense for a change and not just be waiting for the next 'outrage' to come along and react to.
With a unified message and each of us going to our Federal building and being willing to stay there until our demands are met.
We are on the right side of this moral equation and that should be our driving force.
Sea Star RN
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