i expect there are other Potters out there -- trapped in financial cages of dependence on corporations, hating what they do, but too fearful to stop it.

I think that background gives Mr. Potter a heroic standing on some level.

Don't forget to check out the "Language of Healthcare 2009" memo by Frank Luntz (or is it Joe Camel?) linked to at the PBS Web site. It instructs anti-reform legislators on all the scare words and phrases that they must use.

Where is today's Upton Sinclair, galvanizing a nation with a hard-hitting, brutal expose?

neill said:
I think that background gives Mr. Potter a heroic standing on some level.

In the past, some horrible people lived lives of cruelty and decadence, but they repented on their death beds and were forgiven -- no harm, no foul.

This guy Potter admits in the interview that he had risen as high as he was able in the company. He was probably paid a seven-figure salary for a number of years and he appears to be at an age where he would have retired anyway.

So now this assh*le comes forward? After years of helping his corporation suppress stories about how they were screwing over their customers? After, by his own admission, spending his career seeing "numbers" instead of people?

There is nothing "heroic" about this leech. He wasn't trapped by anything but his own greed. I'm glad he has come forward, but he's nothing more than the first rat running off the sinking ship.

Another example of the indispensibility of PBS. Pretty sure cable news was talking about Michael Jackson at the very same time--that or moderated partisan spinning.

When almost all businesses take the form of publicly traded companies -- all businesses must compete against a single standard -- comparable profitability in the short term. An investors will choose a casino that has a ROI of 10% over an insurance company that has an ROI of 8%. This arrangement explains why insurance companies will deny coverage to why American automobile manufacturers cannot re-invent themselves. Investment is divorced from need or function.

This was a powerful interview. I missed it on TV, but watched it in its entirety online. He said that making profits for Wall Street, investors and hedge funds was the primary objective of for-profit insurance companies. He said that insurance companies used lobbyists and their “charm offensive” to sweet talk members of Congress to go along with them. And, if members of Congress refused, they threatened to withhold contributions for their re-election. It is intimidation and blackmail, pure and simple.

I would imagine that the password for the bank accounts of Max Baucus is "Ka-Ching, Ka-ching".

Why haven't the insurance companies been treated like utilities? The government restricts their profit in exchange for near monopolies.

Why should we have a public option?

Because the private sector can't be trusted to pay legitimate claims.

It's that simple, folks.

He said that insurance companies used lobbyists and their “charm offensive” to sweet talk members of Congress to go along with them. And, if members of Congress refused, they threatened to withhold contributions for their re-election. It is intimidation and blackmail, pure and simple.

It's far more than just politicians' relationships with lobbyists and campaign contribution dollars. Like Wendell said, the GOP's whole ideology is wedded to private insurance interests and they will put their vast propaganda machine to work to protect it. Do you think FOX News would have an open discussion about healthcare to inform the rubes? Steve Paradis is right, PBS is one of the last vestiges of informing the public we have left.

The contrast between Potter relating the story of him flying on the corporate jet with the posh leather seating, the flight attendant serving him a meal on a plate with gold trim along with gold flatware, and the longs lines of people from numerous states he witnessed waiting to get medical care in the horse stalls at a fairground in Virginia, was particularly poignant.

Oh, and now we know exactly where the "centrist" Democrats stand on healthcare reform and why. We already knew they were sell outs. Now we know they were specifically targeted (for quite some time) to be sell outs by Greed Co. USA.

No surprises, just a nasty taste in the mouth you get when you finally see a suspicion brought before the light of day.

Above all, don't let the critics confuse nationalized providing of health insurance, v. nationalizing the health care providing itself.

Where is today's Upton Sinclair, galvanizing a nation with a hard-hitting, brutal expose?

Upton Sinclair wrote, you know, books.

This be the 21st century. Sorry, no book is going to galvanize anything, unless maybe it is Harry Potter and the Rotten Health Care System.

I passed along the link to this amazing piece of journalism to all of my email contacts. I would hope that anyone who sees it does the same.

I already knew everything he said when I watched it. Bill Moyers probably now needs a bodyguard to keep the Health Insurance industry from harming him. Everyone should also watch Sicko and check out the Wikipedia article which compares the American system to the Canadian system. It is also devastating to the Plutarchs arguments.

There will be no significant health care legislation until the streets of Washington D.C. are filled with about 20 million pissed off voters carrying torches and pitchforks. Our government (both parties) has been bought by corporate interests--screw the people, they may vote, but they don't come through with those big bucks.

I watched the tail end of this episode and will most defenitely watch the entire episode via internet. I first want to thank Mr. Potter for speaking the truth with regards to health care insurers. They are greedy, and don't care about the health of their insured as they should and his revelations solidly prove that. This program should be aired on national television for all to see. How about seeking donations so as to finance the airing of this program for all to see.

In every news story, I hear some lame litany of " however, conservative democrats and republicans are concerned about the costs of the health care bill" blah blah blah.

The people who want health care reform now should get this video to everyone of these dupes. And people need to ask them - "Oh, well what about the costs of the system we have now !?" Why do we have a system driven by profit, and not CARE ? 28th in the world in healthy life expectancy in the world ? 37th in infant mortality ? 50 million people uninsured !!!

Mr. Potter is going to be ripped apart, much as Michael Moore has been, by the insurance industry. What he says is not new, nor unknown, but if it can get out to the MSM fast, before the propaganda machine gets cranked up it will help.

Mr. Potter also explained how the industry BLUNTED the effects of SICKO by sending out bulletins with false information regarding healthcare reform. The industry just kept exploiting people's fear of a government takeover, rationing, long lines and Mr. Moore's "apparant" dislike of capitalism. All twisted to serve the health insurance industry need to keep control of the money.

We MUST keep fighting back and expose their lies. In just the last few years I've seen a remarkalbe turn around in some ANTI universal heathcare neighbors. As soon a family member got REALLY sick or needed surgery and the bills came rolling in attitudes changed quickly.

A recent guest on Bill Moyers commented that the reason so many people think our healthcare system is just fine is they haven't had to deal with it. Since insurance covers primarily healthy people it's not until a medical emergency comes up do people really, many for the first time, understand how broken our system is.

Include me among those who has developed an "apparent" dislike for Capitalism. I guess it shouldn't be surprising that the roots of the healthcare crisis and the banking crisis are so closely entangled. The problem with America is Wall Street, not Main Street.

But how can corporations be so mean?

Doesn't Wall Street care about people?

Won't the Free Market save us?

"Include me among those who has developed an "apparent" dislike for Capitalism"

Hey, what you really liked was *Free Enterprise*, and Free Enterprise ain't Capitalism.

Capitalism is owning things that make money for you so you don't have to work. Kinda like a medieval duke, or king. It also means crushing all competition, because competition threatens your life of wealth and ease.

The Dukes of America have been telling us that Capitalism means Free Enterprise, but almost the opposite is true.

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