Listen to reason, not anger about health care

John Sloan, Las Vegas

Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2009 | 2:04 a.m.

The health care debate has become so raucous and polarizing that common ground may not be reached. It’s amazing how many Americans express fear of their government as well as show disrespect and hatred toward their elected officials. Even more amazing are those elected officials, mostly Republican, who stoke the flames by misleading their constituents and deliberately keeping them ignorant.

Anyone who has an opinion, pro or con, of what needs to be done to solve our nation’s greatest current crisis should go to PBS’ Web site and watch Bill Moyers’ recent interview with Wendell Potter.

Potter was head of corporate communications for Cigna, the fourth-largest health care provider in the United States. That was before an epiphany that changed his attitude about the dismal state of health care in this country.

Two years ago Potter was singing from the health insurance company hymnal. Then by happenstance he witnessed firsthand the annual Remote Area Medical Health Care Expedition in Wise County, Va., in 2007. He saw with his own eyes the plight of thousands of individuals, without the means to afford “traditional” health care, who were treated by hundreds of volunteer medical professionals. Outside his ivory tower, Potter’s life changed then and there, and his sudden recognition put him morally at odds with his employer.

Potter is now a critic of the politically powerful industry he promoted. He advocates that one should not fear the government’s role in health care, but one should fear an insurance company bureaucrat who is influenced to deny coverage to policyholders because of Wall Street’s profit expectations.

Again, watch the Moyers interview with Potter on PBS’ Web site. If you want nothing done and just want President Barack Obama to fail, then you have the right to remain ignorant.