Anyone Else Hear Wendall Potter This Evening On Countdown?

[laughingliberal]

No surprise to me he was talking about all the various ways the industry can manipulate the medical loss ratios. Asked if anyone in the US government actually even knows how to watch this or enforce it, he said not anyone he knew of, that Senator Rockerfeller probably knows more than most.

I love Wendall Potter. A whistleblower of the 1st magnitude who gave up a lucrative career when he saw the devastation his industry was causing. With luck, he will continue after this bill passes to point out where the industry is skirting the law.

[Fridays Child]

1. I'll tune in to the repeat broadcast.

Thanks for the heads up.
k/r

[HughMoran]

2. he's one of the good ones

I consider what he says to be 'good information' by default.

[laughingliberal]

4. I believe he impresses me more than anyone in the entire debate

A man with an amazingly lucrative career with nothing to gain by leaving his job to advocate for cleaning up the abuses. Left of his own volition for no other reason than to do what was right. What could we do with a world if we had more like that?

[HughMoran]

6. capitalism tends to 'shun' those who tell the truth

There's always another weasel who's willing to lie for the company who will be glad to step on your face as they climb over you to the top.

[mzmolly]

3. Thankfully the Rockefeller amendment has been reinstated.

:hi:

[aaronbav]

5. K&R

[SandWalker1984]

7. Wendell Potter said this about the industry in July of 2009:

"I am speaking out about how big for-profit insurers have hijacked our health care system and turned it into a giant ATM for Wall Street investors, and how the industry is using its massive wealth and influence to determine what is (and is not) included in the health care reform legislation members of Congress are now writing. I was in a unique position to see not only how Wall Street analysts and investors influence decisions insurance company executives make but also how the industry has carried out behind-the-scenes PR and lobbying campaigns to kill or weaken any health care reform efforts that threatened insurers' profitability."



From where I'm sitting, looking at the senate version of the health care reform bill, I'd say Wendell hit it out of the ballpark.

[Thickasabrick]

8. I wish I had TV just for stuff like this. I knew there was something

misleading about the whole ratio thing.

[SandWalker1984]

9. Wendell Potter also said this bill gives the insurance industry everything they want.

Wendell Potter last week said: "Is it a bailout for the insurance industries?"

"It certainly is, it contains everything the industry wants, and it's been stripped of things that the industry didn't like, so it absolutely is a big gift, a big bailout to the industry."


Having spent over 20 years working for the insurance industry, Mr. Potter should know what he's talking about.

So why isn't Congress listening to Mr. Potter????????????????

[laughingliberal]

13. I think Congress was listening. But the progressive caucus got

bulldozed by the administration.

[tnlefty]

10. It would be nice if anyone in the administration were

listening to him, but I'm getting the feeling that they're not. Nor in the Senate, nor Congress even though hearings were held.x(

[laughingliberal]

14. I think the White House deliberately avoided him along with a few Blue Cross Dogs in the Senate nt

[Hissyspit]

11. PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT:

I tried to post the video in the Political Videos forum, but it's not working for me anymore. I keep getting a "YouTube says Video Not Found" message.


MSNBC Countdown w/ LAWRENCE O'DONNELL - 22 December 2009: In an interview with CIGNA whistleblower Wendell Potter, O'Donnell discusses the medical loss ratio - the "amount of money insurance companies must spend on actual health care" - included in the Senate bill and in the overall health care reform.

O'DONNELL: "It's called medical loss ratio, the amount of money insurers must spend on actual health care... It is in the Senate bill and insurance companies are already trying to manipulate it. The bill will impose a medical loss ration of 80-85%. Sen. Jay Rockefeller had pushed for a 90 percent ration, and he tells Time Magazine that customers have a right to know how much of their premiums are spent on administrative costs and advertising. But, as Smart Money reports, the insurance companies already see a silver lining in the new MLR regulations.

Karl McDonald, a health care analyst for the investment bank Oppenheimer & Co. wrote in a memo to clients that:

"the number was 'workable' for insurers, especially if they can label certain items that count as corporate expenses for accounting purposes as health care for purposes of meeting the spending minimum."

Earlier this year, the Senate Commerce Committee investigated medical loss ratios, resulting in Aetna admitting that it had misreported its revenues that overstated its MLR in the small group market. Aetna then amended its filings to reflect the actual numbers.

- snip -

O'DONNELL: "Now, what are the insurance companies thinking about how they're going to approach this new regulation on medical loss ratios?"

WENDELL POTTER: "Well, just like they did two years ago in California when that state tried to reform its health care system, there was general agreement among the insurance companies that they could live with an 85 percent medical loss ration because they knew they could manipulate the numbers and they could define the terms, in other words, they could make them work for them by being able to categorize expenses in certain areas."

O'DONNELL: "This is first of all designed to cut into their profit margins. Will it do that?"

POTTER: "It can if there is significant regulation and we have enough transparency..."

- snip -

O'DONNELL: "Is there anyone currently employed in the U.S. government - at the IRS, or in the HHS - who knows how to enforce this; how to go into an insurance company and figure out what their real medical loss ratio is?"

POTTER: "No, I don't think so. At least I haven't come across them. One of the things I have learned over the last six months is that there is very, very little understanding in Washington about how commercial health insurance companies work, including on Capitol Hill. The exceptions are Sen. Rockefeller and his team..."

[madfloridian]

12. Thanks. There are so many concerns that need to be discussed.

But the rhetoric gets so heated.

Potter is really concerned still.

Did you read about the blogger conference call with Dean and Potter and Mike Lux?

There are some concerns in there also.

[laughingliberal]

15. I did. Scary nt

[laughingliberal]

16. Thanks. I was trying to get what I could while they were talking. nt

[truedelphi]

17. Thank you hissyspit for that transcript.

I am gonna post it inmy journal

Tue Dec-22-09 10:51 PM From Hissyspit
Response to Original message
11. PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT:
I tried to post the video in the Political Videos forum, but it's not working for me anymore. I keep getting a "YouTube says Video Not Found" message.


MSNBC Countdown w/ LAWRENCE O'DONNELL - 22 December 2009: In an interview with CIGNA whistleblower Wendell Potter, O'Donnell discusses the medical loss ratio - the "amount of money insurance companies must spend on actual health care" - included in the Senate bill and in the overall health care reform.

O'DONNELL: "It's called medical loss ratio, the amount of money insurers must spend on actual health care... It is in the Senate bill and insurance companies are already trying to manipulate it. The bill will impose a medical loss ration of 80-85%. Sen. Jay Rockefeller had pushed for a 90 percent ration, and he tells Time Magazine that customers have a right to know how much of their premiums are spent on administrative costs and advertising. But, as Smart Money reports, the insurance companies already see a silver lining in the new MLR regulations.

Karl McDonald, a health care analyst for the investment bank Oppenheimer & Co. wrote in a memo to clients that:


"the number was 'workable' for insurers, especially if they can label certain items that count as corporate expenses for accounting purposes as health care for purposes of meeting the spending minimum."

Earlier this year, the Senate Commerce Committee investigated medical loss ratios, resulting in Aetna admitting that it had misreported its revenues that overstated its MLR in the small group market. Aetna then amended its filings to reflect the actual numbers.

- snip -

O'DONNELL: "Now, what are the insurance companies thinking about how they're going to approach this new regulation on medical loss ratios?"

WENDELL POTTER: "Well, just like they did two years ago in California when that state tried to reform its health care system, there was general agreement among the insurance companies that they could live with an 85 percent medical loss ration because they knew they could manipulate the numbers and they could define the terms, in other words, they could make them work for them by being able to categorize expenses in certain areas."

O'DONNELL: "This is first of all designed to cut into their profit margins. Will it do that?"

POTTER: "It can if there is significant regulation and we have enough transparency..."

- snip -

O'DONNELL: "Is there anyone currently employed in the U.S. government - at the IRS, or in the HHS - who knows how to enforce this; how to go into an insurance company and figure out what their real medical loss ratio is?"

POTTER: "No, I don't think so. At least I haven't come across them. One of the things I have learned over the last six months is that there is very, very little understanding in Washington about how commercial health insurance companies work, including on Capitol Hill. The exceptions are Sen. Rockefeller and his team..."

[clear eye]

18. I heard whispers of this floating around

but this the first time I've come across a real smoking gun. Boy, are we in for it.