WENDELL POTTER on health reform bill: "There is a lot of new oversight of the insurance industry" [View All]

[ProSense]

BILL MOYERS: Is the president essentially saying that the gist of this bill is oversight of the insurance industry?

WENDELL POTTER: Much of it is. There is a lot of new oversight of the insurance industry that this legislation would bring at the federal level. There's-- there has not been anywhere close to adequate oversight of the insurance industry at either the federal or state level, and most of the regulation occurs at the state level, and it varies from state to state.

What we're seeing is regulation can work, but it can only work if the insurance departments have adequate resources and if they understand the importance of regulation. And there needs to be a federal component, because a lot of states don't do it adequately. It has been deregulated, or there has been deregulation a lot of states. And we have seen these price increases go up, and in a lot of states, the insurance coverage is woefully inadequate because there aren't many customer protections in the new states.

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BILL MOYERS: So I hear Wendell Potter saying that if he were in the Senate or the House, he would vote for this reform?

WENDELL POTTER: I would vote for it. I was distraught when I saw what happened, what I saw the Senate voting on. But then I realized, you know, I studied a lot of these efforts over the past many years to get reform. And often we've come short because we've tried to get the perfect, and we've never been able to get anything as a consequence. So I fear that we may be--

BILL MOYERS: Not since Medicare, right?

WENDELL POTTER: Not since Medicare.

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