Health Insurance Exec's Twitter Thread On Healthcare Goes Viral

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mattstaff
Dec 28, 2019 11:00 PM EST

This health insurance exec's Twitter thread on America's healthcare system, and whether or not it preserves a "choice" is going viral. Healthcare should be a right, and not a privilege indeed!

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    Text - 12:43 O Thread t7 You Retweeted Wendell Potter O @wendellpotter Lately I've noticed some Democratic politicians defending the current healthcare system by saying it preserves "choice" for Americans. As a former health insurance exec who helped draft this talking point, I need to come clean on its back story, and why it's wrong and a trap 1/11 11:12 AM · 16 Dec 19 · Twitter for iPhone 5,157 Retweets 10.3K Likes Wendell Potter O @wendellpotter · 1h Replying to @wendellpotter When I worked i
    via @wendellpotter
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    Text - 12:43 Thread 5,162 Retweets 10.3K Likes Wendell Potter O @wendellpotter · 1h Replying to @wendellpotter When I worked in the insurance industry, we were instructed to talk about "choice," based on focus groups and people like Frank Luntz (who wrote the book on how the GOP should communicate with Americans). I used it all the time as an industry flack. But there was a problem. 2/11 L7 196 1,206 Wendell Potter O @wendellpotter · 1h As a health insurance PR guy, we knew one of the huge *vuln
    via @wendellpotter
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    Text - 12:43 Thread huge "out of network" bills. So we set out to muddy the issue of "choice." 3/11 27 256 5 1,360 Wendell Potter O @wendellpotter · 1h As industry insiders, we also knew most Americans have very little choice of their plan. Your company chooses an insurance provider and you get to pick from a few different plans offered by that one insurer, usually either a high deductible plan or a higher deductible plan 4/11 27 200 1,208 Wendell Potter O @wendellpotter · 1h Another problem ins
    via @wendellpotter
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    Text - LIGE 12:43 Thread ♡ 1,115 II 171 Wendell Potter O @wendellpotter · 1h Knowing we were losing the "choice" argument, my pals in the insurance industry spent millions on lobbying, ads and spin doctors -- all designed to gaslight Americans into thinking that reforming the status quo would somehow give them "less choice." 6/11 27 265 1,210 Wendell Potter O @wendellpotter · 1h An industry front group launched a campaign to achieve this very purpose. Its name: "My Care, My Choice." Its job: Tri
    via @wendellpotter
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    Text - 12:43 Thread We're fighting to protect patient choice 27 218 1,084 Wendell Potter O @wendellpotter · 1h This isn't the only time the industry made "choice" a big talking point in its scheme to fight health reform. Soon after Obamacare was passed, it created a front group called the Choice and Competition Coalition, to scare states away from creating exchanges with better plans 8/11 L7 144 3 969 Wendell Potter O @wendellpotter · 1h The difference is, this time *Democrats* are the ones parr
    via @wendellpotter
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    Text - 12:43 Thread "choice" talking point. And they're even using it as a weapon against each other. Back in my insurance PR days, this would have stunned me. I bet my old colleagues are thrilled, and celebrating. 9/11 27 239 1,285 Wendell Potter O @wendellpotter · 1h The truth, of course, is you have little "choice" in healthcare now. Most can't keep their plan as long as they want, or visit any doctor or hospital. Some reforms, like Medicare For All, *would* let you. In other words, M4A actua
    via @wendellpotter

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