AOC shares perfect explanation of how US healthcare tricks consumers – By Clark Mindock (The Independent) / Dec 16 2019
Ms Ocasio-Cortez has endorsed Bernie Sanders in 2020, a leading proponent of Medicare for All
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has taken some heat for saying that 66 health insurance options is too much, but the liberal congresswoman is doubling down on her claim.
On Monday, the New York congresswoman retweeted a thread composed by Wendell Potter, a former health insurance executive who claims he helped draft the insurance industry talking point about consumer choice — and that the argument is “a trap” created by the insurance industry itself.
“When I worked in the insurance industry, we were instructed to talk about ‘choice,’ based on focus groups,” Mr Potter, who previously worked as a vice president for the company Cigna, began his thread, before noting that there “was a problem” with the thinking.
He continued: “As a health insurance PR guy, we knew one of the huge *vulnerabilities* of the current system was LACK of choice. In the current system, you can’t pick your own doc, specialist, or hospital without huge ‘out of network’ bills.”
Mr Potter continued to claim that, knowing they were at a disadvantage over the idea of choice, the insurance industry paid for lobbying and information campaigns that spun the issue in their favour. He claimed that the effort sought to impress upon American consumers that changes to the system would actually yield fewer choices, rather than make it easier to find healthcare options through universal coverage.
Continue to article: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/aoc-medicare-for-all-tricks-consumers-wendell-potter-twitter-bernie-sanders-a9249391.html
