Snowe Job? Insider Says Senator Is “Disingenuous Or Naive” by Greg Palast

by Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
Thursday 15 October 2009

exclusive for Truthout.org

Former insurance executive Wendell Potter tells Greg Palast, in an exclusive interview for Truthout.org, that “the system’s rigged” to kill off so-called “health cooperatives.” Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine cast the only Republican vote on the Senate Finance Committee for the Obama health care plan, but only on the condition that Democrats drop their demand for a “public option” insurer in favor of private doctor/hospital cooperatives.

Earlier today, Potter told Truthout.org that the Senator’s plan is “disingenuous or naive,” because, in most states, “the system’s rigged” to lock up all patients under one for-profit monopoly. While a publicly-funded insurer might succeed in forcing insurers to cut premium charges, Snowe’s cooperatives “don’t stand a snowball’s chance” of competing against the for-profit monopolies.

Potter, once Vice-President of CIGNA, told Truthout.org that, “The insurance industry, if it were honest” it would admit that it “loves” the Senate Finance Committee’s version of the health care legislation as the bill provides nearly half a trillion dollars ($461 billion) in subsidy payments directly from the Treasury to insurance companies.

Hear the entire Potter/Palast interview for Truthout.org here and read Palast’s expert analysis, http://www.truthout.org/1015091, The S-Word and Dr. Kevorkian’s Accountant.

audio is unavailable

News flash: Wendell Potter tells Greg Palast why the insurance industry is secretly licking its chops over the Health Care bill. [15:25m]

see

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