From cog to human being

Amy Goodman interviews Wendell Potter, a former head of corporate communications for CIGNA who finally listened to his conscience, left behind the blood money, and started talking about the evil he was doing as a shill for the health care denial industry.  Definitely worth reading (or viewing; the video is at the link).

What's most interesting is that Potter was the point man for CIGNA during various high-profile denials over the past few years, like the case of Nataline Sarkisyan, a 17-year-old who died because CIGNA refused to give her a liver transplant.  Potter talks about what it was like helping cover for CIGNA as it killed this poor girl:

AMY GOODMAN: And how were you feeling at the time?

WENDELL POTTER: Oh, just devastated. I have a daughter myself. And I—even though I was having to represent the company, and again was being as truthful as I could, I all the time was just thinking about the family and the grief that they were going through and the way their—you know, they were briefly optimistic that the decision to cover the procedure might save her life, and then so quickly for that hope to be dashed was just devastating for them, I know, and it was just crushing for me and a lot of people that I worked with at CIGNA, too. I want to make sure that that’s understood, that it, you know—I was so disappointed, and I was hopeful, too, that this might be something that actually would save her life. It was just a dreadful, dreadful experience for everyone concerned; there were no winners in that at all.

(Potter's wrong there, of course.  There was one winner: CIGNA, which saved itself the cost of giving the girl a healthy liver.  And when CIGNA finally did relent, too late to save Nataline's life, they were careful to explain that they were just "mak[ing] an exception in this rare and unusual case" and that the procedure was "outside the scope of the plan's coverage"—to avoid setting a precedent for the next dying teenager.)

What's worth taking away from this is how Potter spent this time devastated and thinking constantly about the grief and pain the family was suffering (and I don't doubt his sincerity in this at all)—and yet he dutifully did his dirty work throughout, presenting official excuses for CIGNA's lucrative refusal to provide life-saving care.  And "a lot of people" at CIGNA felt the same way he did, and yet also acted exactly as he did.

This is why it's a mistake to focus exclusively (or even primarily) on individuals when examining the evil done by institutions.  It's a guarantee that there was another person filling Potter's chair before it had even gotten cold—someone who likely has either a daughter or a conscience or both, but who nonetheless is just as willing as Potter was to explain to the world why CIGNA has to let more people die (explanations which oddly never seem to contain the word "profits").  As I've written before, the real problem is a system that puts people in the position where their own economic interests lie at odds with the most basic forms of empathy and common decency.

In any case, congratulations to Potter on finally finding his humanity, and trying to make amends for the sins of his former life.

Comments

[Bjorn]

Profound commentary on a critically important testimony.

Thanks, John.

[SteveB]

it's a mistake to focus exclusively (or even primarily) on individuals when examining the evil done by institutions.

Exactly. One of the main functions of governmental or corporate structures is to enable people to do monstrous things without being monsters themselves (because the supply of real human monsters is always much less than the number of monstrous acts that must be committed to keep the system going.) Systems help to place some distance between the perpetrator and his victim, of course, so a Cigna exec could kill Nataline Sarkisyan merely by mouse-clicking a "reject" box on a screen - rather than having to strangle her in her hospital bed.

But systems also help to generate rationales that can let those Cigna employees sleep at night. Every one of them, I'm sure, must have self-justified their actions as follows: "Yes, this little girl's case is heart-breaking, but if we approve this procedure, we open the floodgates, and the resulting bankruptcy isn't going to help anyone - just think of the millions of people we're 'helping' now! Sadly, Natalia must be sacrificed for the greater good."

[John Caruso]

You're welcome as always, Bjorn, and I appreciate the appreciation.

SteveB: ...because the supply of real human monsters is always much less than the number of monstrous acts that must be committed to keep the system going.

Nicely said.

Systems help to place some distance between the perpetrator and his victim...

Yes, and that's crucial. In fact Potter says that the turning point finally came for him when he saw people lined up in the rain to get medical treatment in animal stalls at a country fairground, which "drove it home to me, maybe for the first time, that we were talking about real human beings and not just numbers."

[Christopher Wing]

Are you really congratulating a murderer for not being a murderer any more?

There's prisons full of murderers who aren't murdering anymore, because they're in prison, where they belong. Where Mr. Potter should be. And would be if his gang of thugs were black instead of white. He actually ADMITTED to the murder. His inaction cause a death.

I hope the non-violent offenders in jail get half the sympathy you've shown to someone who actually did kill someone. But rich, white guys who confess to murder seem to get off pretty easy, huh?

Just another McNamara. He'll be dead before we get the chance to try him.

[John Caruso]

Are you really congratulating a murderer for not being a murderer any more?

No, I'm pretty sure I'm not doing that.

I'd call my use of "kill" hyperbole, but you're stretching the limits of exaggeration to the breaking point. It's not a murder even if we're just talking about CIGNA; first, the procedure may not even have saved Nataline's life, and second, refusing to help someone who's dying is not murder by any definition. And as for Potter, he was just the spokesperson for CIGNA—he didn't have the ability to authorize or deny care for anyone, so there's no reasonable argument that he's responsible (much less a "murderer"). And I don't see that his wealth or skin color has a thing to do with it either.

Look: we all have our hot buttons, and yours apparently somehow got pressed. But I'd gently suggest that you've gone pretty far off the rails. I doubt anyone here would disagree that street crime is treated far more seriously than corporate crime, but it's pretty much a non sequitur in regard to this interview or my comments about it...and your implication that I think otherwise because I'm in thrall to rich white guys is, frankly, pretty hard to fathom coming from someone who's apparently been reading the site for a while.

[smdqr]

I'm impressed that Potter chose stood outside his bubble. He told Bill Moyers last week that finding out about health clinic expeditions taking place across America was a revelation for him, and that it hit him like a lightening strike. This is a very positive development, because the bubbles that need popping most are the ones around people, not the bubble economy or any thing like that. Change is definitely on the horizon, and Obama was just a small manifestation of these changing times, so there will be change whether his administration is for it or not.

Anyways, good stuff John.

[Gar Lipow]

I am glad he changed, and yes impressed that he finally saw the humanity of the people the corporate machine he spoke for was crushing. And yet... And yet...

A line from G.B. Shaw's St. Joan keeps running through my head: "Must a new Christ be crucified in every generation for those who have no imagination?"

[NomadUK]

Must a new Christ be crucified in every generation for those who have no imagination?

Brilliant. My education in literature is so sorely lacking; I'm thankful to those who have one.