Many Americans first met Wendell Potter in 2009 when he left the health insurance industry to become a whistleblower and told us the truth. He exposed the industry for the profit-grabbing thieves they are. Today, Potter is president of The Business Initiative for Health Policy, an organization focused on enacting Medicare for All. He’s also the founder of Tarbell.org, an nonprofit, independent, reader supported news site covering money in politics and policy. And he’s the author of a few books including Deadly Spin, which tells the story of his transition from insurance industry PR flak to whistleblower.
It was almost a decade ago to the day that many of us first heard of Wendell Potter. It was June 24, 2009 when the former VP of Communications for Cigna Insurance Co testified as a whistleblower before the Senate Commerce Committee about the deceptive practices employed by the health insurance industry. A few weeks later, on July 10, he sat for his first interview since leaving the industry with Bill Moyers.
At the time, I was hosting a nightly show on Air America Radio, and was bound and determined to get Wendell Potter on my show. That happened on August 5, 2009. Should you care to go back to years to listen, here’s that interview:
