Wendell Potter: My warning for the NHS

[marmar]

My warning for the NHS
I quit a private health industry built to deny care to millions. This is what Lansley wants here

Wendell Potter
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 12 July 2011


Andrew Lansley's controversial NHS bill is premised on "choice and competition" and the creation of a market in healthcare. These three stories below from the US show choice and competition at work on the ground. They also explain why 45,000 Americans die every year because they can't afford – and in many cases can't even obtain – health insurance.

But first, let me introduce myself – as I did in June 2009 when I testified before a congressional committee that was investigating the many abuses of the private insurance industry in the US. "My name is Wendell Potter, and for 20 years I worked as a senior executive at health insurance companies, and I saw how they confuse their customers and dump the sick – all so they can satisfy their Wall Street investors."

I described how insurance companies, in their constant quest to meet profit expectations, routinely cancel the coverage of sick policyholders and strive to spend less and less of premium dollars on medical care so they can divert more and more of those dollars to executive salaries and dividends for investors.

A few months before my testimony I had left my job as head of communications for one of the largest US insurers, Cigna. I could no longer in good conscience continue to serve as a spokesman for a profit-obsessed industry that I had come to realise was largely responsible for the American healthcare system's descent into dysfunctionality. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/12/nhs-reform-lansley-warning

[ProfessionalLeftist]

1. HIGHLY recommended - along with his book, "Deadly Spin" n/t