Following a 20-year career as a corporate insurance executive, Wendell Potter left his position as head of communications for Cigna in 2008 to advocate for comprehensive health care reform. He has since been an ardent advocate for major health insurance reforms – and his contributions on the pages of this site are clear evidence of his passion for reform and his disgust over insurance industry practices of the ‘good old days‘ before Obamacare.
Potter recently launched a new media venture, Tarbell, a nonprofit web site dedicated to exposing corporate moneyed interests’ influence on energy, taxation, politics, and healthcare. Through that citizen-fueled media venture, he’s broadly expanding his whistleblower role by helping consumers understand how the system is rigged – and what they can do about it.
Potter served previously as an analyst at the The Center for Public Integrity and is president of Wendell Potter Consulting. He has also served as a consumer representative to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
His book, Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans, was awarded the Ridenhour Book Prize for “outstanding work of social significance” in 2011.