"I am sick and tired of knowing that only 80 cents of every dollar I pay in premiums to my private insurer goes to pay doctors and hospitals for care they provide. (This figure is down from 95 cents in 1993 before the industry came to be dominated by a cartel of hugh for-profit insurance companies like the two I used to work for.)"
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It is estimated that social services dollars spent by the government, 25% of the spending reaches the intended recipient. This will end well!
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Government is paying for 50 percent of the health care right now in our country. We will make it better by government paying for 90% of health care. I like this logic!
Mr. Potter,
You, as a former member of CIGNA's communications team, should know that the case of the 17 year-old girl in California was an ASO. This means that CIGNA denied her coverage because her parents' employer did not choose to cover it with their self-funded insurance plan.
As for the voluntary plans, you should also know, that the employers that choose to offer them when they have not offered insurance, in any form, to their employees. They tend to be very low-wage workers, but not low enough to qualify for Medicaid. These plans are a huge benefit to the workers who are able to enroll in them.
Finally, high-deductible, HSA eligible plans are only "bad" if you are a person who wants every test for every little thing that goes wrong. I'm sorry that someone tried to get you to take control of your own health. I'm guessing you're a 50 year old man who has high-cholesterol, high blood pressure, and hasn't seen a gym in years.
The biggest culprits in the junk mail deluge are "non-profit" organizations flooding the system with innumerable tons of Seminar, Training and Continuing Education solicitations. I have had an on-going battle for over 2 years with these organizations, requesting they forward their brochures to our HR Dept. only, advising them of employees who are no longer with the company, duplication of employee names, etc. to no avail. It's quite obvious that the more junk they distribute, the more money they receive to keep their so-called non-profit organization going. There most certainly should be a law. Where do I sign up?
Namaste,
I am a progressive and have been most of my life. However, I have sort of turned spiritual in the last few years or so, so please forgive me if I step on some toes with this spiritual interpretation of Wendell Potter. And if you can't allow me this, well than all I can say is 'get over it' can 'chill out'. And yes, Virginia, there are Controllers who have been controlling us, without our knowledge, for a long, long, time.
From my lifelong experience I think that probably higher forces have been working throughout Potter's life to bring him to where he is now, and this is probably a result of his prebirth agreement to do what he is doing. That is he is probably part of a Grand Master Plan that will eventually heal the Earth and all of us. Thank you, Mr. Potter.
That being said, I have listened to Mr. Potter being interviewed by Bill Moyers, parts of his Congressional testimony, and now Democracy Now! The DN! interview is I feel his best interview yet. In a shout amount of time, he was able to touch on every necessary point in the most eloquent way.
When I first heard that Obama was supporting the forced insurance medical plan, I went ballistic and called all my representatives in Congress within the first few minutes of this. I know better than to go ballistic, anger is insanity, and takes you away from love. When I was able to calm down, I trusted that (most of the time) everything would turn out for the good eventually. Then Source Creator sent us Mr. Potter, with Mr. Potter's permission, of course, and we are now on a different course.
Thank you again, Mr. Potter. I send you so much love you can not imagine.
Love and light,
Wendell,
After so many years as an insider, your courage to speak out about the abuses of the U.S. health insurance industry is refreshing and admirable.
There are many pigs feeding at the trough of the U.S. healthcare dollar (to use Uwe Reinhardt's apt metaphor), but the health insurance industry is one of the biggest, baddest, and most slippery.
Please continue to use your considerable PR expertise and experience, and knowledge of the industry, to help us ordinary citizens counter the massive propoganda and lobbying campaign now being waged to counter meaningful reform of U.S. healthcare. Just preaching to the choir is not going to get anything done. We may be oupspent and outmanned, but this is STILL a democracy, isn't it?
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