In 2010, the Affordable Care Act – also known as Obamacare – became law. It not only got millions of people health insurance, but it also made that insurance more affordable to consumers.
Right?
According to former VP of CIGNA Wendell Potter, it’s not quite so straightforward. And we’ve got good reason to believe him – the insurancer’s former VP now considers himself a whistleblower against the industry.
It may seem strange that someone would go against the company they once worked for, but Potter has good reasons to take his stand. Medical debt and bankruptcy is an enormous problem in the United States, and the ACA hasn’t really helped.
The ACA was supposed to decrease the cost of health insurance and, eventually, medical debt. Unfortunately, a February 2019 study shows that levels of medical bankruptcy stayed roughly the same despite the reforms.
Here’s what Potter wrote about the subject.
As Potter explains it, the industry had to redefine “choice.”
Lately I’ve noticed some Democratic politicians defending the current healthcare system by saying it preserves “choice” for Americans. As a former health insurance exec who helped draft this talking point, I need to come clean on its back story, and why it's wrong and a trap 1/11
— Wendell Potter (@wendellpotter) December 16, 2019
When I worked in the insurance industry, we were instructed to talk about “choice,” based on focus groups and people like Frank Luntz (who wrote the book on how the GOP should communicate with Americans). I used it all the time as an industry flack. But there was a problem. 2/11
— Wendell Potter (@wendellpotter) December 16, 2019
He goes on to explain how health insurance companies manipulated perceptions of choice.
As industry insiders, we also knew most Americans have very little choice of their plan. Your company chooses an insurance provider and you get to pick from a few different plans offered by that one insurer, usually either a high deductible plan or a higher deductible plan 4/11
— Wendell Potter (@wendellpotter) December 16, 2019
Potter explained how employer-based insurance really works.
Another problem insurers like mine had on the “choice” issue: people with employer-based plans have very little choice to keep it. You can lose it if your company changes it, or you change jobs, or turn 26 or many other ways. This is a problem for defenders of the status quo 5/11
— Wendell Potter (@wendellpotter) December 16, 2019
Next, he admitted that the industry used gaslighting techniques.
Knowing we were losing the “choice” argument, my pals in the insurance industry spent millions on lobbying, ads and spin doctors — all designed to gaslight Americans into thinking that reforming the status quo would somehow give them “less choice.” 6/11
— Wendell Potter (@wendellpotter) December 16, 2019
Then he exposed some campaigns used to sell “choice.”
An industry front group launched a campaign to achieve this very purpose. Its name: “My Care, My Choice.” Its job: Trick Americans into thinking they currently can choose any plan they want, and that their plan allows them to see any doctor. They’ve spent big in Iowa 7/11 pic.twitter.com/E45OwBuYzS
— Wendell Potter (@wendellpotter) December 16, 2019
And there’s more.
This isn’t the only time the industry made “choice” a big talking point in its scheme to fight health reform. Soon after Obamacare was passed, it created a front group called the Choice and Competition Coalition, to scare states away from creating exchanges with better plans 8/11
— Wendell Potter (@wendellpotter) December 16, 2019
He also explains why things are different now.
The difference is, this time *Democrats* are the ones parroting the misleading “choice” talking point. And they’re even using it as a weapon against each other. Back in my insurance PR days, this would have stunned me. I bet my old colleagues are thrilled, and celebrating. 9/11
— Wendell Potter (@wendellpotter) December 16, 2019
Then, Potter discusses one reason Medicare For All would work better for the public.
The truth, of course, is you have little “choice” in healthcare now. Most can’t keep their plan as long as they want, or visit any doctor or hospital. Some reforms, like Medicare For All, *would* let you. In other words, M4A actually offers more choice than the status quo. 10/11
— Wendell Potter (@wendellpotter) December 16, 2019
The last tweet provides useful guidance.
So if a politician tells you they oppose reforming the current healthcare system because they want to preserve “choice,” either they don’t know what they’re talking about – or they’re willfully ignoring the truth. I assure you, the insurance industry is delighted either way 11/11
— Wendell Potter (@wendellpotter) December 16, 2019
Whew! That’s a lot of great (though disheartening) information for anyone who wants to understand why the US healthcare industry runs the way it does.
What it comes down to, like always, is money.
Was there anything on this Twitter thread that stood out to you? Feel free to let us know.
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