This Former U.S. Health Insurance Exec Says He And The Entire Industry Lied To Americans About Canadian Healthcare

If someone told you that Canada’s health system is an example of socialist failure, where wait times are outrageous and people swarm to the U.S. to get the healthcare they really need, they probably lied.

Wendell Potter spent two decades working in the health insurance industry. He knew it in and out. And he got sick of it. In 2008, Potter quit his job at Cigna as head of corporate communications and has been on a mission to revamp the healthcare system in the country ever since. Serving as a whistleblower and exposing behind-the-scenes corruption and manipulation in the dirty world of health insurance, he posted a thread on Twitter the previous week in which he explained how he had personally been a part of dishonoring Canada’s system so that Americans would think theirs was superior.

Image credits: wendellpotter

Image credits: wendellpotter

Image credits: wendellpotter

Image credits: wendellpotter

Image credits: wendellpotter

Image credits: wendellpotter

“Those of us in the insurance industry constantly hustled to prevent significant reforms because changes threatened to eat into our companies’ enormous profits,” Potter wrote in The New York Times. “We were told by our opinion research firms and messaging consultants that when we promoted the purported benefits of the status quo that we should talk about the concept of ‘choice’.”

But the former executive said those who held senior positions for the big insurers knew that one of the huge vulnerabilities of the system is its lack of choice. “In the current system, Americans cannot, in fact, pick their own doctors, specialists or hospitals — at least, not without incurring huge ‘out of network’ bills.”

Image credits: wendellpotter

Potter thinks that not only does the current health care system deny you choice within the details of your plans, it also fails to provide many options for the plan itself. “Most working Americans must select from a limited list made by their company’s chosen insurance provider (usually a high-deductible plan or a higher-deductible plan). What’s more, once that choice is made, there are many restrictions around keeping it. You can lose coverage if your company changes its plan, or if you change jobs, or if you turn 26 and leave your parents’ plan, among other scenarios.

“The truth, of course, is that Americans now have little ‘choice’ when it comes to managing their health care. Most can’t choose their own plan or how long they retain it, or even use it to select the doctor or hospital they prefer. Some reforms being discussed this election, such as ‘Medicare for all’, would provide these basic freedoms to users.”