Who is Wendell Potter

W

endell Potter is a man of rare courage who gave up his handsomely compensated position as Vice President of corporate communications at CIGNA, the health insurance giant, because his conscience would no longer allow him to continue working as the chief spokesman for a company that, in his words, had "...hijacked our health care system and turned it into a giant ATM for Wall Street investors."

What woke up his sleeping conscience was a spur-of-the-moment visit to a health "expedition" being held by a non-profit orginization called Remote Area Medical whose founder, Stan Brock, had invisioned an organization that would provide medical care to those without access to it after seeing the plight of the Amazonian indians. According to the RAM website, "He witnessed the near devastation of whole tribes by what would have been simple or minor illnesses to more advanced cultures."

These days, 60% of RAM health care expeditions are held in the rural United States. This is what Wendell Potter says about the one he visited in Wise, Va., located fifty miles from his hometown in northeastern Tennessee:

"Nothing could have prepared me for what I saw when I reached the Wise County Fairgrounds, where the expedition was being held. Hundreds of people had camped out all night in the parking lot to be assured of seeing a doctor or dentist when the gates opened. By the time I got there, long lines of people stretched from every animal stall and tent where the volunteers were treating patients.

That scene was so visually and emotionally stunning it was all I could do to hold back tears. How could it be that citizens of the richest nation in the world were being treated this way?

A couple of weeks later I was boarding a corporate jet to fly from Philadelphia to a meeting in Connecticut. When the flight attendant served my lunch on gold-rimmed china and gave me a gold-plated knife and fork to eat it with, I realized for the first time that someone's insurance premiums were paying for me to travel in such luxury. I also realized that one of the reasons those people in Wise County had to wait in long lines to be treated in animal stalls was because our Wall Street-driven health care system has created one of the most inequitable health care systems on the planet."
 

This cartoon succinctly sums up the status quo: