‘I saw hundreds of people lined up... waiting to get care, in animal stalls. Animal stalls.’
Wendell Potter, then head of Public Relations for CIGNA, struggled with what he’d seen at a Wise County health care expedition in his home state of Virginia.
'I mean, there was no privacy... people being treated on gurneys, on rain-soaked pavement... It was like being hit by lightning... what country am I in? It just didn't seem to be a possibility that I was in the United States.'
Wendell Potter was bound for Hogwarts, unbeknownst to him.
A few weeks later, on a CIGNA jet with leather seats and golden food served to him on gilded plates with golden cutlery, the corporate empire’s shimmering spell was weakened by empirical fact:
'And then I remembered the people that I had seen in Wise County. Undoubtedly, they had no idea that this went on, at the corporate levels of health insurance companies.'
He finally consulted a book of potions...
'President Kennedy's Profiles in Courage. And in the forward... was a Dante quote... "The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of moral crisis, maintain a neutrality." And when I read that, I said, "Oh, jeez, I-- you know. I'm headed for that hottest place in hell, unless I say something."'
Wendell Potter speaks volumes now, in high places, having quit his job and headed straight to Washington. He tells of the charm offensive brought to bear on citizens by denizens of our wealthy class.
Even my dear old dad, my Dumbledore, schooled in the WF Buckley conservatism of his day, would likely shudder at the usurping of health care by corporations, hedge funds and lobbyists who fly their government stoolies like captured owls of prey. Not because my dad is suddenly against free enterprise. It’s just that he likes people - a lot. He’s a softy in the opposite way of those who broker no compassion in their treasure quest.
Insider Wendell Potter reveals his truth, for a millisecond, in the maelstrom of health care reform. But private insurers own the megaphones we call the public airwaves. They blare their scary scenarios at muggles and wizards alike, pictures of imagined deprivation siphoned into the national bloodstream like the drip drip drip of an IV gone terribly awry. Or an evil witches’ brew.
Fillet of a fenny snake,
In the cauldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg, and howlet’s wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
William Shakespeare, Macbeth
This is not a time for diffidence. Potter, and for that matter, any one of us with a body and a brain, would do well to listen to Hermione Granger, who counsels us on speaking out.
'It matters because being able to talk to snakes was what Salazar Slytherin was famous for. That's why the symbol for Slytherin house is a serpent.'
Hermione, The Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rawlings
Public domain painting Viktor Vasnetsov The Flying Carpet
- Susan Weber's blog
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MacBeth shall sleep no more...
Susan,
Thank you for the links to the Bill Moyers interview and to Potter's congressional testimony. Unfortunately, we often have to wait for the revelations of whistleblowers before we get the kind of inside information we need to regulate important industries such as insurance.
Hopefully, this information will lead to legislation more helpful to consumers. It also highlights the need for a national initiative to provide payment for health care outside of the insurance industry.
-- Walt Campbell
__________________
Water Color Visions
Viral is the operative term
You're welcome, Walter. The interview is fascinating, even for someone following health care reform. I haven't watched Potter's testimony before congress yet, but plan to soon.
Despite the anti-reform megaphones, we have the internet and other back channels - trusty tools for building a movement toward fairness in all this. I try to remember that when faced with evidence of 'same old' politics/corporate excess.
Funny, that in this particular sphere, viral is the operative term.
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