In my twenty five years as a primary care physician, I have seen hundreds of instances of working Americans in rural and urban areas denied critical health care needs (Broken arm that a patient could not afford the required surgery to repair, twenty year old unable to …more afford the MRI or arthroscopic surgery to fix probable torn knee cartilage, etc) because they could not afford the costs of health insurance. I had suspected several of the health insurance tactics Mr Potter details in this insightful, hard hitting expose.

Deadly Spin is a unique book for many reasons.
Mr Potter's credentials make him the perfect nightmare for the health insurance companies of this country. As former VP of corporate communication at CIGNA he has a working knowledge of all the tactics used by the masters of spin.

This book shows the lengths health insurance companies (as well as tobacco, petroleum, coal mining giants) will go to confuse and deceive the people of America in order to enhance their profit margins. If you want to comprehend US political and economic current events, this book is essential reading.

Mr Potter also includes a fascinating historical time line of public relations in this country, including a piece on the "Torches of Freedom" used by women's rights marchers duped into smoking cigarettes by an early spin-meister.

His play-by-play write ups of the Clinton and Obama attempts to pass meaningful health care legislation enable one to see what was occurring behind the scenes in the halls of corporate power and perhaps understand those events for the first time.

James Reynolds, MD (less)