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.
Dandelion Salad 