CIGNA is the health insurance group that has been lobbying to derail the public option in the health care debate.
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Wendell Potter (CIGNA whistleblower) testified before the Senate on June 24, 2009 . Below is Wendell's appearance on Bill Moyers Journal.
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See other video and links near end of this post:
See other video and links near end of this post:
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Just saw several other comments at Center for Media and Democracy from former CIGNA employees and others:
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THIS IS FROM ANONYMOUS:
“I practiced medicine for 31 years in the 2nd poorest of 67 Florida counties. It was quite common to see someone die because of no access to health care in a timely manner. Half my patients had no insurance. And, no they were not “mostly illegal immigrants”.
The rare non-English speaking patient(who may or may not have been illegal) always brought cash.
If an imaging study was needed, such as an MRI, it would be a terrible uphill battle and arguing and fighting with a Wall Street owned hospital...etc. I never heard of a Medicare patient complain about access.
What other rich country on earth has such a crude, heartless, despicable and morally reprehensible state of affairs? Is the whole world wrong and only Americans are right? It would be very naive to believe such nonsense?
Our health care delivery system is the laughing stock of the world. One hears this in between-the-lines comments from visiting foreign colleagues at national medical conventions. As a prominent Princeton economist said; “Advanced countries don’t do that to their citizens”. Something has to change where the insurance companies will stop cherry-picking by refusing to give insurance to anyone except the perfectly healthy. From a moral and ethical standpoint, insurance executives, big pharma executives and big finance executives have a lot in common.
From: Anonymous” on July 11, 2009
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THIS NEXT COMMENT is dated July 12, 2009 from Steve Williams:
Mr. Potter,
I applaud your decision to leave the health insurance industry and speak out on our failed health care enterprise. I too am an insider having worked for 25 years as a senior manager and consultant for a variety of regional and national health plans, Blue Cross companies and others. I came to the conclusion 10 or 12 years ago that a single payer, government solution was the only one that can work in health care. I won't belabor why I support this approach, but I would like to suggest respectfully to you that your focus on health insurers misses a big part of the reason that our current system won't work, namely, a fractured and unregulated delivery system.
While it is true that for-profit health insurers (though I would argue non-profits aren't much better) are a big part of the problem in health care, providers are the other, and arguably bigger part of the problem. After all, even if administrative costs in health insurance are 20 percent, we still spend the other 80 on providers. And they are just as protective of the status quo, despite their protests to the contrary.
I'm sure you are familiar with John Wennberg's work at Dartmouth and that of others who have written about the variation in costs throughout the country. Reforming the payer community would certainly go a long way toward solving some of our problems, but the provider world must be reformed as well.
It is because of this twin dilemma that I support national health care--there is no way to rationalize the entire enterprise without changing the fundamentals of both payers and providers. I would be interested in your thoughts on providers and other issues. I have written a 5,000 word essay on this issue that I would share with you if you are interested. I would value your comments and thoughts.
Please accept my genuine support for your courage to speak out.
Steve Williams”
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THIS IS FROM PROGRESSIVE PATRIOT:
“As a former employee of CIGNA, though far from an executive level capacity, I always felt that insurance companies have been ripping us off for years. It may have paid my bills for 6-1/2 years, but the basic principals under which they operated just seemed wrong.
The talking-heads are telling us that having "choices" of which insurance company we're going to buy our mandatory coverage from will bring prices down because of "competition", but car insurance never went down when states passed mandatory coverage. Why should we ever believe that the cost of health care will come down as long as insurance companies have control?
Maybe after they fix health insurance, Congress could pass a similar national car insurance system. “
Submitted by Progressive Patriot
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BELOW IS THE COMMENT from CR regarding a CIGNA orientation he attended (You can see the entire comment at: http://www.prwatch.org/node/8422#comment-4564
“I practiced medicine for 31 years in the 2nd poorest of 67 Florida counties. It was quite common to see someone die because of no access to health care in a timely manner. Half my patients had no insurance. And, no they were not “mostly illegal immigrants”.
The rare non-English speaking patient(who may or may not have been illegal) always brought cash.
If an imaging study was needed, such as an MRI, it would be a terrible uphill battle and arguing and fighting with a Wall Street owned hospital...etc. I never heard of a Medicare patient complain about access.
What other rich country on earth has such a crude, heartless, despicable and morally reprehensible state of affairs? Is the whole world wrong and only Americans are right? It would be very naive to believe such nonsense?
Our health care delivery system is the laughing stock of the world. One hears this in between-the-lines comments from visiting foreign colleagues at national medical conventions. As a prominent Princeton economist said; “Advanced countries don’t do that to their citizens”. Something has to change where the insurance companies will stop cherry-picking by refusing to give insurance to anyone except the perfectly healthy. From a moral and ethical standpoint, insurance executives, big pharma executives and big finance executives have a lot in common.
From: Anonymous” on July 11, 2009
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THIS NEXT COMMENT is dated July 12, 2009 from Steve Williams:
Mr. Potter,
I applaud your decision to leave the health insurance industry and speak out on our failed health care enterprise. I too am an insider having worked for 25 years as a senior manager and consultant for a variety of regional and national health plans, Blue Cross companies and others. I came to the conclusion 10 or 12 years ago that a single payer, government solution was the only one that can work in health care. I won't belabor why I support this approach, but I would like to suggest respectfully to you that your focus on health insurers misses a big part of the reason that our current system won't work, namely, a fractured and unregulated delivery system.
While it is true that for-profit health insurers (though I would argue non-profits aren't much better) are a big part of the problem in health care, providers are the other, and arguably bigger part of the problem. After all, even if administrative costs in health insurance are 20 percent, we still spend the other 80 on providers. And they are just as protective of the status quo, despite their protests to the contrary.
I'm sure you are familiar with John Wennberg's work at Dartmouth and that of others who have written about the variation in costs throughout the country. Reforming the payer community would certainly go a long way toward solving some of our problems, but the provider world must be reformed as well.
It is because of this twin dilemma that I support national health care--there is no way to rationalize the entire enterprise without changing the fundamentals of both payers and providers. I would be interested in your thoughts on providers and other issues. I have written a 5,000 word essay on this issue that I would share with you if you are interested. I would value your comments and thoughts.
Please accept my genuine support for your courage to speak out.
Steve Williams”
---
THIS IS FROM PROGRESSIVE PATRIOT:
“As a former employee of CIGNA, though far from an executive level capacity, I always felt that insurance companies have been ripping us off for years. It may have paid my bills for 6-1/2 years, but the basic principals under which they operated just seemed wrong.
The talking-heads are telling us that having "choices" of which insurance company we're going to buy our mandatory coverage from will bring prices down because of "competition", but car insurance never went down when states passed mandatory coverage. Why should we ever believe that the cost of health care will come down as long as insurance companies have control?
Maybe after they fix health insurance, Congress could pass a similar national car insurance system. “
Submitted by Progressive Patriot
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BELOW IS THE COMMENT from CR regarding a CIGNA orientation he attended (You can see the entire comment at: http://www.prwatch.org/node/8422#comment-4564
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I PREVIOUSLY POSTED A SMALL SEGMENT OF THIS COMMENT
“Hi Wendell,
New (corporate) “officers” in CIGNA were flown in for a three day orientation at headquarters in Connecticut. We were given a short presentation on your work. CIGNA thought most highly of you and apologized for your being away lobbying and thus unable to address our class yourself.
What I remember of that module was being told that we were expected to “tithe” 3-10% of our salary to the CIGNA lobbying group. The trainer explained it like a friendly grand-parent to a young child. This is how I remember it.
You see if we can influence legislation to benefit our business then we make more money, and you do too - through our generous profit sharing program. Our lobbyists are skilled at providing and presenting reasons for our duly elected representatives to support legislation that we sometimes write ourselves. Last year we had $3,000,000 in the lobbying budget. There are only a handful of senators and congressmen that we have to get on our side to get our legislation passed. We had one representative who was against one of the pieces of legislation we wanted to pass. We asked some questions and with only a $10,000 check, written in a completely legal way, he changed his vote.
“Hi Wendell,
New (corporate) “officers” in CIGNA were flown in for a three day orientation at headquarters in Connecticut. We were given a short presentation on your work. CIGNA thought most highly of you and apologized for your being away lobbying and thus unable to address our class yourself.
What I remember of that module was being told that we were expected to “tithe” 3-10% of our salary to the CIGNA lobbying group. The trainer explained it like a friendly grand-parent to a young child. This is how I remember it.
You see if we can influence legislation to benefit our business then we make more money, and you do too - through our generous profit sharing program. Our lobbyists are skilled at providing and presenting reasons for our duly elected representatives to support legislation that we sometimes write ourselves. Last year we had $3,000,000 in the lobbying budget. There are only a handful of senators and congressmen that we have to get on our side to get our legislation passed. We had one representative who was against one of the pieces of legislation we wanted to pass. We asked some questions and with only a $10,000 check, written in a completely legal way, he changed his vote.
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Currently, we are working on influencing the legislature in Quebec, Canada to change the rules to open them up to the American style of health care. Our analysts have determined that once 15% of a population buys their own private health insurance the voters can be influenced to legislate the socialized system away. The reason the percentage is only fifteen percent is that those are the richest and most influential citizens. If you get that 15% to lead, then the herd will follow. Quebec is not that lucrative but once Quebec falls then Ontario will be open and that market is the size of Michigan!
Currently, we are working on influencing the legislature in Quebec, Canada to change the rules to open them up to the American style of health care. Our analysts have determined that once 15% of a population buys their own private health insurance the voters can be influenced to legislate the socialized system away. The reason the percentage is only fifteen percent is that those are the richest and most influential citizens. If you get that 15% to lead, then the herd will follow. Quebec is not that lucrative but once Quebec falls then Ontario will be open and that market is the size of Michigan!
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After I flew home, I realized that I felt like I was working for Darth Vader. Something else occurred that concerned me.
After I flew home, I realized that I felt like I was working for Darth Vader. Something else occurred that concerned me.
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Our Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) got bonuses (about 20% of their pay) for having better performance statistics in the current year as compared to the prior year. They were expected to deny more people the benefits that our subscribers expected year over year. The first year you may expect to deny benefits that our subscribers did not deserve. However, to have that same program year after year inevitably causes our CSRs to deny legitimate claims. When I raised this question it was suggested that I needed to pay more attention to being a “team player.”
Our Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) got bonuses (about 20% of their pay) for having better performance statistics in the current year as compared to the prior year. They were expected to deny more people the benefits that our subscribers expected year over year. The first year you may expect to deny benefits that our subscribers did not deserve. However, to have that same program year after year inevitably causes our CSRs to deny legitimate claims. When I raised this question it was suggested that I needed to pay more attention to being a “team player.”
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After only eight months I left CIGNA. Self respect is worth more than a big paycheck.
Submitted by CR “
IF THE ABOVE COMMENTS ARE TRUE, WE APPLAUD THESE PEOPLE FOR SUBMITTING THEIR COMMENTS; NOW CONGRESS/SENATE AND CANADA LISTEN UP AND PAY ATTENTION!!!!!
After only eight months I left CIGNA. Self respect is worth more than a big paycheck.
Submitted by CR “
IF THE ABOVE COMMENTS ARE TRUE, WE APPLAUD THESE PEOPLE FOR SUBMITTING THEIR COMMENTS; NOW CONGRESS/SENATE AND CANADA LISTEN UP AND PAY ATTENTION!!!!!
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DEATH BY DENIAL
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HEALTH CARE STATUS QUO [STATE BY STATE LOOK AT HEALTH CARE] - MUST SEE
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THANK GOD OUR RICH PEOPLE ARE SAFE!!
AMERIKA IS OWNED AND OPERATED BY A GIANT CRIMINAL GANG...
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