Health Care For America Now

Wendell Potter, former insurance industry executive turned whistle-blower, today called for Congressional investigations into the insurance companies deceptive actions in funding misleading Chamber of Commerce attack ads to the tune of $10-$20 million dollars while at the same time claiming they were in favor of health reform.

Potter said:

Over the past several months — including during my Congressional testimony in both the House and Senate — I have talked about how health insurance companies and America's Health Insurance Plans, cannot be trusted, how they never intended to be the good-faith "partners" with President Obama and Congressional leaders to enact reform despite their public assurances that they would be. I have disclosed how the industry has long conducted duplicitous public relations campaigns — one it wants the public to know about, the other that it goes to great lengths to hide from public view.

And, I have explained how the insurers work with its big business and political allies to disseminate lies and misleading information. One of the industry's biggest shills has long been the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. It has funneled money through many other allies, including the Federation of Independent Business, which assisted the industry in killing the "Patient's Bill of Rights" reform legislation in the 1990s. Congress owes it to the American public to investigate the insurance industry's involvement in this deception, to determine if laws have been broken and to consider legislation to close loopholes that allow powerful special interests to engage in this kind of activity.

These people cannot be trusted, and their track record proves it. Yet, if there is no public option in the final reform legislation Congress will vote on in the coming weeks, most Americans will have no choice but to all buy overpriced and often inadequate coverage from these shady, greedy insurance companies who care far more about their profits than our health and well-being.

Small business owners affiliated with the Main Street Alliance, an organization that actually represents small business instead of doing the dirty work of corporate overlords like the Chamber of Commerce, spoke in favor of investigations today as well on a call with reporters.

Small businesses are among the hardest hit by the health care crisis, having to regularly choose between providing health care for their employees and keeping their business open. Needless to say, they're incredibly angry that their insurance companies would keep raising their premiums then turn around and use their money to fight the health care reform they need.

As David Borris, owner of Hel's Kitchen Catering in Northbrook, IL said:

The insurance companies could have run their own ads, but they wanted to walk a line trying to sell a message to the public that they were in favor of reform, as long as it's "done right," when in truth all they want to do is protect their profits at the expense of my business. That's why this is a fraud and needs to be investigated.

Rick Poor, the owner of a small screen printing business from Lincoln, Nebraska, followed up:

Last year I paid out over $61,000 to insruance companies. That's a lot of money I could have used to buy equipment and hire people to run it. Now I find out that 20% of those premiums are being used to try and beat the very reform I need to keep my people covered and stay in business.

Every year my premiums go up and my benefits go down, to the point where I will no longer be able to provide insurance in the near future. We have a chance to change the status quo. And we find out the insurance companies are being two-faced in their arguments.

The fact that some of my money is being used to fund these ads is like handing somebody a stick and saying, "Beat me with it!"

The Main Street Alliance has a petition up for business owners to sign calling on Congress to investigate the insurance companies' secret funding of these lying ads from the Chamber of Commerce. If you're a small business owner (or know one), please sign on here.

As Howard Eaton, owner of Taylor & Eaton Childcare in Helena, AR, said:

The overwhelming majority of small business owners are in support of health care reform because of what it will do for American people. We're not represented by groups like the Chamber of commerce. The same goes for our elected officials, who are not representing our interests, but rather representing the interests of the insurance companies. It's time for them to step up, be leaders, and support people who voted them in.