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Author Biography | Interview | Books by this Author | Read-Alikes
Wendell Potter is an author, former corporate public relations executive and, a journalist. He was a reporter in his home state of Tennessee back in the '70s, covering local and state politics – including the Tennessee statehouse – for The Memphis Press-Scimitar. He has also covered Congress, the White House and Supreme Court for Scripps-Howard newspapers. After a few years in DC he was enticed into PR and spent more than two decades in the health insurance industry, first at Humana and then at Cigna. He was serving as head of corporate communications for Cigna when he left after a crisis of conscience in 2008.
Since then he has written three books: Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans (a New York Times bestseller and winner of the Ridenhour Book Prize in 2011); Obamacare: What's In It for Me/What Everyone Needs to Know about the Affordable Care Act (an ebook); and Nation on the Take: How Big Money Corrupts Our Democracy and What We Can Do About It (published in March 2016). He has also written numerous commentaries and analysis pieces for a broad range of media outlets, including the Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, the Guardian, the Nation, and the Center for Public Integrity.
In July 2016, he launched a new nonprofit, To Be Fair, Inc., which will publish news and commentaries on money in politics, propaganda, health care and other topics.
Wendell Potter's website
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This page includes both an interview with Wendell Potter (see video below) in which he speaks out against the current American health care system, and (below) a letter to readers in which he provides useful resources and advice for those seeking adequate care.
Former health insurance PR executive Wendell Potter exposes and speaks out against the devious policies and practices he once defended.
A letter from Wendell Potter on American health care reform and a list of useful references to help those seeking adequate care
Since I started speaking out about the abuses of the health insurance industry and explaining why Americans have put up with the most expensive and one of the most dysfunctional health care systems on the planet, countless people have asked me to intercede on their behalf with an insurance company that has refused to pay for care they need. Many others are among the 51 million Americans without coverage - or the 25 million who are underinsured. They've asked me if I can help them find decent coverage they can afford. Hundreds of people just want to know what they can do to make sure health care reform keeps going forward and how they can get involved in the fight for a more rational and ...
Ira Byock serves as Executive Director and Chief Medical Officer for the Institute for Human Caring of Providence Health and Services, a 35 hospital health system serving communities across 5 western states. Dr. Byock ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
Deadly Spin
Try:
The Best Care Possible
by Ira Byock
John Carreyrou is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter at The Wall Street Journal. For his extensive coverage of Theranos, Carreyrou was awarded the George Polk Award for Financial Reporting, the Gerald ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
Deadly Spin
Try:
Bad Blood
by John Carreyrou
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