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Deadly Spin
Potter's exceptional book "Deadly Spin" takes us behind-the-scenes into the wheeling and dealing that goes on with multiple PR flacks that try and spin doctor any change that threatens their profit as bad for the average consumer. Potter gives us a history of the PR game to help us understand WHY and HOW this is unethical (especially by the ethics guidelines dicated by the PR association). http The health care industry from health plans to pharmaceuticals have for too long had access to lawmakers (using the money that we pay them) to push forward their own agenda and "buy" politicians in Washington; that's nothing new it just just become more blatant than before. Using misinformation, front groups to suggest that any sort of reform is bad, these organizations have been directing America down a path with overgrown foilage and rough terrain where the patient must always suffer. Potter's book takes the curtain that these companies hide behind and let's us see the thought process, inner workings and how misinformation manipulates the public to make the wrong choices while allowing politicians to make those choices knowing they are wrong without ramifications.
Is "Universal Healthcare" the way to go? I don't know but I do know that the insurance industry is scared of it. Potter points out how people like him would manipulate the media and politicians to paint Universal Healthcare as "communist" or "socialist" in nature to taint any and all intelligent discussion about the positives and negatives scaring people away before dialog had even begun.
There are many people that don't and my point is to include them in the discussion. "Universal Healthcare" has been demonized by the insurance media and politicized without looking at it as a possible choice or considering it logically or fairly.
Not everyone believes in universal healthcare for a variety of reasons (usually because they are afraid of it as an example of "big government" and "socialism" because they've been misled into believing that's what the term means). Whether or not one believes in universal healthcare, it's clear that we have a very flawed system the way it is set up now. It doesn't work for the reasons the author points out.
I'd suggest focusing on the big picture and not on one sentence. It's important to frame the discussion properly and fairly.
Not everyone believes in universal healthcare for a variety of reasons (usually because they are afraid of it as an example of "big government" and "socialism" because they've been misled into believing that's what the term means). Whether or not one believes in universal healthcare, it's clear that we have a very flawed system the way it is set up now. It doesn't work for the reasons the author points out.
I'd suggest focusing on the big picture and not on one sentence. It's important to frame the discussion properly and fairly.
Some of the most disturbing revelations in "Deadly Spin" are that 'ObamaCare' is not a 'cure-all.' For example, it will not stop employers from only offering high-deductible plans such as the $30,000 for some families in Maine. Nor does it remove the ERISA liability protection for employer-sponsored plans. However, it will sharply reduce medical bankruptcies, the key reason for 62% of personal bankruptcies in 2007. Hopefully, it will also reduce the amounts paid for executive salaries and retreats - WellPoint spent over $27 million on staff retreats in 2007-08, while William McGuire, United Health CEO for 12 years, was paid almost $2 billion for his leadership ($620 million was 'clawed-back' because of fraudulent option back-dating). (Comparison: Dr. Donald Berwick, an extremely well-regarded expert in charge of care for the 103 million receiving Medicare or Medicaid, receives only $176,000/year.) Hopefully, the $52.4 billion spent on stock buybacks instead of medical care by the 7 largest insurers from 2003-08 will also either cease or be drastically diminished.
However, the scariest part of this book is at its very end. Wendell Potter has put together the buying-up of the newspaper industry with the new age of spin-dominated politics, and warned us of a future with less and less honest information available to the masses. This is a threat in all areas of life, not just healthcare. If ranting politicos can convince the very people that need it most that public healthcare is bad, what CAN'T they convince them of?? It bodes very ill indeed.
Potter devotes an entire chapter to revealing how health insurers torpedoed Healthcare Reform using all of the dirty tricks he had discussed in previous chapters. The reason we have no public option is because it would put the health insurance industry out of business prompting them to wage all-out war against it.
The lengths to which health insurers go and the collusions in which they participate are extraordinary. They routinely deny coverage to people who need it and drop coverage of people who become ill. They hire outside PR firms who form bogus grassroots groups who lobby in favor of health insurers. They provide statistics to back up all of their false claims that any kind of healthcare reform is bad.
Again, the hope is that Americans will not be gullible enough to believe what Angelo M. has said as what Obama and the Democrats have put forth is completely different from those countries that UHC. Also, the statistics that Angelo M. has produced are somewhat deceptive as he only lists two countries which have universal health care while ignoring the fact that there are about a dozen other countries which also provides UHC for its citizens. One would also think that with the figures that Angelo has cited that the United States would be considered one of the top countries, if not THE top country, in the word regarding health care. But as a study from the World Health Organization points out, this is far from being the case as it ranks the United States 37th among the rest of the world in terms of quality health care [that would include such categories as infant mortality, longevity of its citizens, number of hospitals, availability of physicians, etc.] despite the fact that the U.S. spends more per capita on its health care plan than every other country in the world. The country that was ranked #1 by the WHO was France which [gasp!], employs a universal health care system for its citizens.
From clandestine meetings carefully organized to leave no paper trail to creating third party front groups, Potter lets the reader in on the dirty secrets most big corporations would rather have the masses be in the dark about because the stakes are high and the profits even higher.
DEADLY SPIN is not just an exposé of health insurers but a stark warning that corporate spin is distorting our democracy.
DEADLY SPIN
An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans
Since Wendell Potter walked away from his executive position at a top health insurance company in May of 2008, he has worked tirelessly as an outspoken critic of corporate PR and the distortion and fear manufactured by America’s health insurance industry. It is a PR juggernaut that is bankrolled by millions of dollars, rivaling lobbying budgets and underwriting many “non-partisan” grassroots organizations. How would Potter know? He wrote many of the industry’s talking points himself.
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