I didn’t think it was possible for me to get more disgusted with the industry I used to be a cheerleader for, but I was wrong. Continue reading
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Author Archives: Wendell Potter
Is crony capitalism a big reason for America’s dental health care crisis?
For an example of how Big Money in politics is causing real harm to average Americans, look at the practice of dentistry in this country. Continue reading
How to reduce the absurd amount of money Americans spend on health care? One community at a time
If you’d like to meet someone who is truly “part of the solution,” someone who understands the problems of American health care in a way that few politicians do—and someone who is putting her money where her mouth is to get us healthier—meet Esther Dyson. Continue reading
Presidential aspirations for Medicare’s future
If you’ve watched all of the presidential debates so far—both Democratic and Republican—and you were waiting for the candidates to tell you if and how they would change Medicare, you are still waiting. Continue reading
The ‘casino effect’ on your health insurance rates
If you’re being hit with a huge rate hike on your individual health plan next year, your insurance carrier likely ‘placed bad bets’ last year.
Minnesotans who get health insurance through the individual market last week became the latest in the country to get unwelcome news: the cost of their coverage will likely go up significantly next year. According to the state’s Commerce Department, which regulates insurance in the North Star state, some customers of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota may see their premiums jump nearly 50 percent beginning January 1. Continue reading
Presidential candidates in fantasy land over health care
Candidates say this and that about health care, but it’s the insurers and pharmaceutical companies that call the tune
Presidential candidates from both parties are full of sound and fury about various aspects of the U.S. health care system, but unless we as a nation get serious about big money in politics, all the noise will ultimately amount to nothing. Continue reading
Insurers say private Medicare plans are better, but we really don’t know
Firms hold tight to data, so comparing their programs with traditional Medicare not possible
Health insurers have been telling us for years that their Medicare Advantage plans, which are federally funded but privately run alternatives to traditional fee-for-service Medicare, can provide better care—at lower cost—than the government. Continue reading
Merger of health insurers usually leads to big payday for executives
Policyholders end up paying more, according to studies.
If regulators approve the recently announced mega-deals in which Aetna, Inc. would buy Humana Inc. and Anthem, Inc., would buy Cigna Corp., will consumers benefit? Or will the winners be limited primarily to the executives and shareholders of the companies involved? Continue reading
Walkercare gives women reasons to worry again
Walker plan envisions a return to an ‘open market’ that rolls back ACA’s consumer protections and ratchets up premiums for women.
If women are beginning to get a tad concerned about what their world might be like if the next occupant of the White House is a Republican, they have more reason to worry now that some of the GOP candidates for president are cluing us in about their Obamacare replacement plans. Continue reading
Why pre-existing conditions mattered . . . to millions
Before Obamacare became law, Americans faced rejection of individual health coverage for any one of 400 medical conditions
The Republican candidates for president who say they’ll lead the charge to repeal Obamacare if they’re elected (that would be all 17 of them) might want to take note of the most recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll: more Americans are now for the law than against it. If you don’t believe me, take a look at this. Continue reading
Health insurers working the system to pad their profits
Taking advantage of Medicare Advantage
One of the reasons the health insurance industry worked behind the scenes in 2009 and 2010 to derail Obamacare was the fear that changes mandated by the law would cut their Medicare Advantage profits. Medicare Advantage plans are federally funded but privately run alternatives to traditional fee-for-service Medicare. Continue reading
Candidates without a clue
GOP contenders hate Obamacare but don’t have an alternative and know nothing about health insurance
If folks who watched Thursday night’s Republican presidential debate were expecting the candidates to tell us what they’d do to replace Obamacare if they could get rid of it, those folks would have been disappointed. Continue reading
Privatizing Medicare would create more problems than it solves
Republicans have long dreamed of finding a way to either privatize or get rid of Medicare, a program that has provided access to health care for well over 100 million Americans since it was created in 1965. As presidential candidate and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush made clear a few days ago, that dream is still alive. Continue reading
Alabama OB-GYN whose patient died, pushed for ‘drive-through deliveries’
Sen. Larry Stutts fought law enacted to require longer hospital stays for mothers and newborns
During his campaign for the Alabama legislature last year, now-state Sen. Larry Stutts, a Sheffield Republican and OB-GYN, vowed to get the government out of the middle of the patient-physician relationship. He made no mention of the fact that what he really had in mind was putting insurance companies back in the middle of that relationship. Continue reading
If Obamacare critics win high court case, effects will be wildly disparate
Kentucky residents would be unaffected, Tennesseans devastated
If the Supreme Court rules in favor of the plaintiffs in King v. Burwell, nowhere will the effect be more stark than along the 400-mile border between two states my family has called home, Tennessee and Kentucky. Continue reading
Elimination of ‘public option’ threw consumers to the insurance wolves
Big firms and their campaign cash found a friend in Joe Lieberman
When members of Congress caved to demands from the insurance industry and ditched their plan to establish a “public option” health plan, the lawmakers also ditched one of their favorite talking points, that a government-run plan was necessary to “keep insurers honest.” Continue reading
Repeal Obamacare? GOP should be careful what they wish for
Now that they'll control the White House and Congress, Republicans still haven't got a clue what to do about health care.
Posted on December 9, 2016 by Wendell Potter
For years, Republicans have been condemning Obamacare and vowing to repeal and replace it. Now that they’ll soon be able to do that, they’re like the dog that caught the car: Now what? Continue reading →