Wendell Potter, A Health Insurance Exec Turned Whistleblower, On Blowing Up Our System

Why Should I Trust You?

Content provided by Brinda Adhikari, Tom Johnson, Maggie Bartlett, Dr. Mark Abdelmalek, Brinda Adhikari, Tom Johnson, Maggie Bartlett, and Dr. Mark Abdelmalek. All podcast content including episodes, graphics, and podcast descriptions are uploaded and provided directly by Brinda Adhikari, Tom Johnson, Maggie Bartlett, Dr. Mark Abdelmalek, Brinda Adhikari, Tom Johnson, Maggie Bartlett, and Dr. Mark Abdelmalek or their podcast platform partner. If you believe someone is using your copyrighted work without your permission, you can follow the process outlined here https://podcastplayer.com/legal.

2M ago 57:19

MP3•Episode home

On today's episode, we tackle a topic that sparks more fear, frustration, and mistrust than perhaps any other: health insurance. From denied claims to endless bureaucratic red tape and the dread of sky-high out-of-pocket costs, it's no wonder so many Americans feel trapped. While more people are covered than ever before, many are still skipping doctor visits, avoiding exams, and forgoing prescription refills due to the financial burden. The raw emotion was on full display in the shocking response to the murder of the United Healthcare CEO. Today, we sit down with Wendell Potter, a former health industry insider turned whistleblower who walked away from his high-paying job to fight for reform in the very industry he once served. In today's divisive conversation about making America healthier, is fixing healthcare the one thing we can all agree on?

Hosts:

Brinda Adhikari

Tom Johnson

Maggie Bartlett

Dr. Mark Abdelmalek

Guest:

Wendell Potter, former health insurance executive at Cigna; president of the Center for Health and Democracy

Sources:

I Was a Health Insurance Executive. What I Saw Made Me Quit

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/18/opinion/health-insurance-united-ceo-shooting.html

In US, Inability to Pay For Care, Medicine Hits New High
https://news.gallup.com/poll/658148/inability-pay-care-medicine-hits-new-high.aspx

Thanks for listening! If you like us, please leave a review, rate us, and please subscribe!
Got questions? Comments? We'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]

Chapters

1. Wendell Potter, A Health Insurance Exec Turned Whistleblower, On Blowing Up Our System (00:00:00)

2. Intro and Headline: America is Angry About Its Healthcare (00:00:17)

3. Mark Gives Us a Healthcare Quiz (00:02:05)

4. Surveys on Americans' Anxiety about Healthcare (00:05:50)

5. The UnderInsured (00:08:15)

6. The Average Premiums/year for a Family is $25,000!! (00:09:54)

7. Obamacare's impact on all this (00:14:41)

8. Let's Meet Wendell Potter, Health Exec Turned Whistleblower (00:17:57)

9. When Things Started to Change for Wendell (00:20:31)

10. Can We Trust Health Insurance Companies? (00:22:51)

11. What Wendell Saw on the Inside That Alarmed Him (00:26:13)

12. The Climate Post-United Health CEO Murder (00:36:09)

13. Costs Here v Elsewhere (00:38:25)

14. What Young People Think about Healthcare and United Health CEO Killing (00:40:50)

15. "The Industry Spends Money to Protect the Status Quo" (00:44:40)

16. Some Signs of Bi-Partisan Concern Over the System (00:46:33)

17. HHS Cuts and the Industry (00:46:59)

18. Healthcare Costs a Winning Issue for Either Party? (00:53:43)

19. Potter: I Have Hope and Optimism (00:56:07)

20. Please Rate, Like, Subscribe! Thank you! (00:57:03)

26 episodes

#Science #News Talk #News #Brinda Adhikari #Dr. Mark Abdelmalek #Maggie Bartlett #Public Health #Vaccine #Covid #Pandemic