'Never about patients': Ex-insurance exec rips industry for being 'beholden to Wall Street'

18 December 2024

One former health insurance industry executive is now confronting his former colleagues over their business practices — both in a New York Times op-ed and on national cable news.

In a Wednesday interview with CNN host Jake Tapper, Wendell Potter — who was vice president of corporate communications for health insurance giant Cigna between 1993 and 2008 — discussed his recent op-ed for the Times explaining why he felt compelled to leave the industry and become a universal healthcare advocate. Potter said the case of 17 year-old Nataline Sarkisyan, a Cigna policyholder whose claim for a liver transplant was denied and later died of leukemia, was the tipping point.

"She was really quite sick," Potter told Tapper. "But Cigna, at the very last minute, as the surgery was about to take place, decided it wouldn't pay for the transplant. The family raised a big stink, and it became a big PR problem for the company. And Cigna relented. But sadly, so much time passed that Natalie got sicker. And she died just a few hours after Cigna changed its mind."

Potter's op-ed comes in the wake of an ongoing national conversation that erupted after UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot to death outside of his Midtown Manhattan hotel earlier this month when he was on his way to an investor conference. The alleged shooter, 26 year-old Ivy League graduate Luigi Mangione, was apprehended with a 262-word manifesto in which he referred to health insurance industry executives as "parasites" who "had it coming." The manifesto also pointed out that even though the United States spends the most money in the world on healthcare, yet ranks just #42 in life expectancy.

Investigators believe Mangione — who was not a UnitedHealthcare policyholder — allegedly targeted Thompson due to his position as the head of the largest and most profitable health insurance company. In addition to the manifesto, he allegedly had a notebook in his possession in which he is said to have written about his plans to shoot Thompson "at the annual parasitic bean counter convention," saying it was "targeted, precise and doesn't risk innocents."

UnitedHealth ranks #4 out of all Fortune 500 companies in total revenue, and has a claim denial rate of 32% — which is double the industry average. Potter told Tapper that the industry's claim denials are primarily motivated by profit, and that those denials are a main source of rage for millions of Americans.

"Every day there are people in this country who face delays and denials of care. Their lives are shortened in many cases because of this," Potter said. "It's all because over the last 30 years, our insurance industry has become for profit. It wasn't that way even as recently as the mid-1990s. But now, these companies are beholden to Wall Street."

"As a consequence of that, they are making us pay a lot more out of our own pockets before our coverage kicks in," he continued. "And they're second-guessing our doctors and standing between us and our doctors. And unfortunately, so many people are not getting the care that they need."

"They need to change the way they do business. that needs to change. They need to have a refocus and focus more on the patient, he added. "It was never about consumers. It was never about patients. So these companies really have to change."

Watch the segment with Potter below, or by clicking this link.

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