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Former Cigna Health Insurance Executive Supports Public Option

October 5, 2009 

It’s not everyday that executives apologize for making bundles of money dressing up the images of corporations that are up to no good. That makes Wendell Potter, a former communications executive at Cigna Insurance, special. 

Potter, who now works for the nonprofit advocacy group Center for Media and Democracy, said that he took part in a misleading public relations campaign to defeat health care reform while working for Cigna in the 1990s. He is now advocating for health care reform, including a public option.

The Web site www.wake.mync.com covered Potter’s speech before a luncheon sponsored by North Carolina Policy Watch. 

“It’s a cartel in many ways,” Potter said of an “oligarchy” of seven huge for-profit companies that enroll one out of every three Americans in health care insurance.
 Even non-profits like Blue Cross Blue Shield retain such a commanding section of the market in some states that competition is stifled, said Potter.

Under a public health insurance option, said Potter, “You’d get better value and that would force insurance companies to also give you a better rate and price health care plans more competitively.”

While Potter has left Cigna far behind, the company is back to investing big money into public relations efforts to defeat current health care reform legislation.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka is calling for insurance commissioners in Connecticut, Indiana, New York and Pennsylvania to investigate whether the funds that Cigna and WellPoint are spending on such advertising are leading to increases in consumer premiums.

In the last decade, premiums for employer-based health insurance rose 120% while pouring more than $3.5 billion into lobbying activities, says Trumka. 

The labor federation and advocates in the group Consumer Watchdog are also calling for an investigation into UnitedHealthcare, where they say employees were put under pressure at captive audience meetings to join that company’s efforts to defeat health care reform.

Photo used under a Creative Commons License from user cobalt123