Overview

""My name is Wendell Potter, and for twenty years I worked as a senior executive at health insurance companies. I saw how they confuse their customers and dump the sick--all so they can satisfy their Wall Street investors."" --Senate testimony, June 24, 2009 Wendell Potter is the insurance industry's worst nightmare. In June 2009, Wendell Potter made national headlines with his scorching testimony before the Senate panel on health care reform. This former senior vice president of CIGNA explained how health insurers make promises they have no intention of keeping, how they flout regulations designed to protect consumers, and how they skew political debate with multibillion-dollar public relations campaigns designed to spread disinformation. Potter had walked away from a six-figure salary and two decades as an insurance executive because he could no longer abide the routine practices of an industry where the needs of sick and suffering Americans take a backseat to the bottom line. The last straw: when he visited a rural health clinic and saw hundreds of people standing in line in the rain to receive treatment in stalls built for livestock. In Deadly Spin, Potter takes listeners behind the scenes to show how a huge chunk of our absurd health care spending actually bankrolls a propaganda campaign and lobbying effort focused on protecting one thing: profits. Whatever the fate of the current health care legislation, it makes no attempt to change that fundamental problem. Potter shows how relentless PR assaults play an insidious role in our political process anywhere that corporate profits are at stake--from climate change to defense policy. Deadly Spin tells us why--and how--we must fight back.

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Reviews

"The ideal whistleblower...his testimony [is] logical, specific, and convincing.-- ""Time"" ""Deadly Spin is a must-read for all who want to learn more about what [the health reform law] is and what it is not. It is a handbook for social change."" -- ""New York Journal of Books"" ""A gripping indictment."" -- ""Time"" ""An illuminating, up-to-the-minute testimonial sure to garner widespread attention and controversy."" -- ""Kirkus Reviews"" ""Damning revelations throughout [t]his book."" -- ""New York Times"" ""Expose[s] the dark manipulations of fact that insurance firms use to preserve for-profit healthcare. Then he put it all on paper with a terrific book"" -- ""The Nation"" ""Potter engagingly weaves together industry secrets with his own moral struggle and transformation into a whistleblower who tried to beat back the spin that nearly killed Obamacare."" -- ""Mother Jones magazine"" ""Potter's street cred and deep knowledge of the industry make his indictment unusually vivid and compelling."" -- ""Publishers Weekly"" ""This whistle-blower perspective will heighten discussion and debate on the vital topic of health care in America."" -- ""Booklist"" ""To get the country back on track, Potter exhorts consumers to adopt a healthy dose of skepticism toward corporate doublespeak. That's a sound prescription, one which no American can afford not to have filled."" -- ""Boston Globe"""

Author Information

Wendell Potter is a former vice president of corporate communications at CIGNA, one of the largest health insurance companies in the United States. In June 2009, he testified against the HMO industry in the US Senate as a whistle-blower. Now an active voice on health care reform and a fellow at the Center for Media and Democracy, he has appeared in high-profile interviews with Bill Moyers and various others. Patrick Lawlor has recorded over three hundred audiobooks in just about every genre. He has been an Audie Award finalist several times and has received several AudioFile Earphones Awards. He has won a Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Award, numerous Library Journal and Kirkus starred audio reviews, and multiple Editors' Picks, Top 10, and Year's Best lists. He is the only male audiobook narrator in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. To relax in his spare time, Patrick runs marathons. Patrick Lawlor has recorded over three hundred audiobooks in just about every genre. He has been an Audie Award finalist several times and has received several AudioFile Earphones Awards. He has won a Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Award, numerous Library Journal and Kirkus starred audio reviews, and multiple Editors' Picks, Top 10, and Year's Best lists. He is the only male audiobook narrator in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. To relax in his spare time, Patrick runs marathons.

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