Health Care-Insurance Solutions

He used to say Canada’s health care was risky. Now he says it’s the future.

<embed> https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2020/0715/He-used-to-say-Canada-s-health-care-was-risky.-Now-he-says-it-s-the-future </embed> CSM 7/15/2020

“Amid America’s #COVID19 disaster, I must come clean about a lie I spread as a health insurance exec: We spent big $$ to push the idea that Canada’s single-payer system was awful & the U.S. system much better. It was a lie & the nations’ COVID responses prove it.”
He believes this could be a pivotal moment for health care reform, and sees a clear role for himself directing a lens at how, from the inside, the corporate world conspires to shape policy and public opinion, even when the data is not accurate. Some of the public has been unwilling to accept his apology, but he says that goes with the territory of the whistleblower.
Those attitudes were shaped by Mr. Potter as vice president in communications of Cigna, which he joined in 1993. He rose through the ranks, spinning data that helped consolidate profits for his company. He says he would take “cherry picked” anecdotes from the industry group, America’s Health Insurance Plans, that he then turned into talking points that he made sure got into the hands of lobbyists, politicians, and journalists – creating a propaganda machine that he claims he believed at the time.

How the US could afford ‘Medicare for all’

<embed>https://theconversation.com/how-the-us-could-afford-medicare-for-all-124462</embed> The Conversation 10/04/2019

Striking the words “over 65” from the Medicare statutes was an idea championed by the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

Moynihan, who held several roles in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, was an original architect of the War on Poverty and a central figure in the evolution of health care policy in the latter half of the 20th century.

Many original Medicare advocates intended it to be the basis for universal health insurance. A key reason it serves so well as the foundation is that it includes a funding mechanism – the 2.9% Medicare payroll tax paid by you and your employer, alongside modest monthly premiums.