A Deadly Spin

I often (and purposely) write this blog with good-natured tongue placed firmly in my cheek. At least, I intend for it to come across that way. There's plenty of perfidy and malfeasance afoot in our world, especially in the realm of politics. I figure a laugh or two along the way toward making a point is not a bad thing.

Today, I write with no good-natured or humorous intent whatsoever. The subject is serious to me, and to many others. It is no exaggeration to say that it is deadly serious for many.

Much ado is being made over efforts in Congress to "repeal and replace" what has come to be termed Obamacare, the health care legislation passed in 2010 and known formally as The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

I'm not here to argue the deficiencies or merits of the law...that's a whole other series of posts. What has struck me is the very issue of trying to build a system of health care that is dependent on for-profit insurers for regulation and decision-making when it comes to who gets care -- and how much, what kind, etc. -- and, painfully, who does not.

One of the friends of my youth (thanks, EG) raised a significant point earlier this week as we bantered over healthcare via Facebook: "Obamacare" is NOT health insurance, and is far too dependent on forcing both citizens and insurors to participate in the system. It is a "dog that will not hunt," to borrow his colloquialism -- one that any true child of the South will reverberate with.

To wit, an article by Dr. Pauline Chen in Thursday's New York Times. Dr. Chen tells of her own personal experience with the story of Nataline Sarkisyan, a 17-year-old young woman who died during the struggle with her family's health insurer over the approval of a liver transplant. I'll let you read the details of the story here; let's just say that the giant insurance conglomerate, CIGNA, took a real kick in the ass of their public approval over the whole affair.

CIGNA's former head of corporate communications, Wendell Potter, has detailed the stories of Nataline and many others in his new book, Deadly Spin. He describes his task there this way: “It was my job to enhance those firms’ reputations. But as one of the industry’s top public relations executives and media spokesmen, I also helped create and perpetuate myth that had no other purpose but to sustain those companies’ extraordinarily high profitability.”

Dr. Chen calls it "a fascinating book that details the methods he and his colleagues used to manipulate public opinion...including myth-making...front groups, paid spies and jiggered studies."After working to save CIGNA's reputation over the Sarkisyan case, Mr. Potter remarked: “It became clearer to me than ever that I was part of an industry that would do whatever it took to perpetuate its extraordinarily profitable existence,” he wrote -- “I had sold my soul.”

The point that intrigues me is not to pursue endless criticism of health insurers (though a healthy dose of skepticism wouldn't hurt!) -- but rather to examine what Potter and Chen lift up as the fact that the United States “has entrusted one of the most important societal functions, providing health care, to private health insurance companies.”

[Note: Guess who holds the single largest number of exemptions to the new Health Care Act for their employees? CIGNA -- with 265,000! There's not a single union or employee organization that even comes close...check the data here.]

This issue goes WAY beyond partisan politics; it's too important for any of us-- and certainly for our elected leadership -- to submit to hearsay and emotional rhetoric in order to find a solution. Please, Messrs. O'Connell, Boehner, and Obama -- try to work together and, for God's sake, get it right!

Before too many of the rest of us have to die.

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Post-Publication Note --

Another good friend of my youth (thanks to the former Ms. Hollis) has pointed out that Mr. Reid and Mrs. Pelosi should be included in the group I have implored to work together. Amen, sista!