Wendell Potter
Health reform advocate; best-selling author

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.
Posts by Wendell Potter
- Thanks, President Trump, for single-payer.
- The new plan to cut out the heart of Obamacare
- Wendell Potter: Speaker Ryan’s repeal plans are driven by donors – not your health coverage needs
- Health insurance industry has blood on its hands
- ‘Obamacare Saved My Life, Too.’
- Back from the Future. (A sequel we’ll all hate.)
- History (of health carrier greed) repeats itself
- Cry me a river, Aetna.
- The Insurance Empire Strikes Back
- Seriously: Is the Public Option really an option?
- No. Obamacare isn’t killing the insurance industry.
- GOP candidates and the Faulty Five
- Is Obamacare ‘collapsing’?
- Is CarsonCare really ‘out of the box’?
- The ‘casino effect’ on your health insurance rates
- WalkerCare gives women reasons to worry again
- Why pre-existing conditions mattered … to millions
- Thank you, Justice Roberts, for saving our butts
- Anatomy of a true health insurance death spiral
- Succeed or fail, challenge may push rates higher
- Erasing the ‘Obama’ from Obamacare
- The ‘good old days’ before Obamacare
- Don’t let $418 million of FUD fool you
- Dem ad slays Obamacare-hating Republican
- Introducing a new ‘metal’ tier: Fool’s Gold?
- The dental crisis that’s driving patients away
- Obamacare: Irreplaceable, irrepealable
- March ACA enrollment madness?
- Enrollment: ‘Beating the clock’ isn’t enough
- Small-screen coverage misses big picture
- ‘Bailout?’ ‘Unprecedented?’ Honestly?
- Looking for the down side?
- 2014: A very good year for health coverage
- 5 questions for real Obamacare reporters
- The elephant in the room
- Shopping smart in the new marketplace
- Lordy, Lordy. Obamacare Repeal Vote 40
- ‘Is this thing on?’
- Obamacare giveth. Employers taketh away?
- Projections evidence ‘rate shock is a crock’
- No shortage of insurance ‘flavors’ ahead
- Medicare Advantage – or DISAdvantage?
- A helping hand for Rep. Marsha Blackburn
- Title of Congressional hearing said it all:
- Want to fix health care? Watch this movie.
- Consumer protections in industry crosshairs