Wendell Potter

EXCLUSIVE
  • Health Insurance Reformer
  • Journalist & Commentator
  • NYT Bestselling Author: ‘Deadly Spin’
  • President, Center for Health & Democracy

Wendell Potter is best known as America’s leading advocate for healthcare reform. The former health insurance industry executive pivoted to investigative reporting when he chose to blow the whistle on the industry's business practices as a Congressional expert witness in his New York Times bestseller, Deadly Spin. His following books, Obamacare and Nation on the Take, blend insurance industry insider knowledge with fervent dedication to transforming healthcare. His courageous exposure of profit-driven decisions that often compromised patient well-being became a turning point, marking Potter as an individual committed to transparency, ethics, and a fundamental reevaluation of the healthcare landscape.

Potter’s influential views are frequently cited in The New York Times and Washington Post, and onscreen on CNN, NPR, and MSNBC among other media outlets. In his substack newsletter, HEALTHCARE Un-covered, Potter examines and reports on breaking news within the U.S. healthcare system and insurance industry, and its impact on patient care. Potter’s level of understanding of American health insurance companies, one of the largest and most important industries in the world, is unique in its level of inside insight into how insurers play their game. Potter has spoken on healthcare to organizations including the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University, Physicians for a National Health Program, Business Health Care Group, as well as innumerable physician, attorney, policy maker, employer, and other professional groups eager for insight on issues of concern.

 


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Past Hosts Include:
  • Advantis Health Systems
  • Physicians for a National Health Program
  • Texas Society for Anesthesiologists
  • Stigler Center at University of Chicago
  • Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University
  • Business Health Care Group
  • Next Gen Benefits
  • YOU Powered Symposium
Wendell Potter: How Big Health Insurers Are Bilking Trillions From Us | The Zero Hour - Get Sharable Link
Talks & Conversations with Wendell Potter
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Healthcare Reform

Healthcare reformer WENDELL POTTER left his high-level insurance position to put forth an urgent call for policy action in his NYT bestseller, Deadly Spin. Drawing on his experience as an analyst at The Center for Public Integrity and as a consumer representative to the National Association of Insur ...

Healthcare reformer WENDELL POTTER left his high-level insurance position to put forth an urgent call for policy action in his NYT bestseller, Deadly Spin. Drawing on his experience as an analyst at The Center for Public Integrity and as a consumer representative to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Potter shares a perspective informed by both analytical insights and direct advocacy for consumer interests in the realm of insurance and healthcare.

Insuring Your Business

WENDELL POTTER’s unique perspective blends insurance industry insider knowledge with fervent dedication to transform healthcare. From unpacking ERISA and legal exposure to providing guidance on industry best practices, Potter gives a comprehensive overview of what you need to know about the insuranc ...

WENDELL POTTER’s unique perspective blends insurance industry insider knowledge with fervent dedication to transform healthcare. From unpacking ERISA and legal exposure to providing guidance on industry best practices, Potter gives a comprehensive overview of what you need to know about the insurance industry.

Justice for Clients: The Truth About Surprise Billing

As the most influential advocate for healthcare reform, WENDELL POTTER exposes the dark underbelly of health insurance companies, shedding light on their deceptive tactics to maximize profits. Potter shares his reaction to seeing firsthand how insurance companies devastate the lives of customers by ...

As the most influential advocate for healthcare reform, WENDELL POTTER exposes the dark underbelly of health insurance companies, shedding light on their deceptive tactics to maximize profits. Potter shares his reaction to seeing firsthand how insurance companies devastate the lives of customers by denying coverage to patients facing serious health issues and by setting policy deductibles unreasonably high.

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Speaker News

Wendell Potter continues his fight for healthcare as President of the Center for Healthcare and Democracy

President of the Center for Healthcare and Democracy WENDELL POTTER uses his role to continue to advocate for health insurance reform. After walking away from an executive position at Cigna, one of the country’s largest health insurers, Potter’s congressional testimony became a key building block in the case for expanding healthcare under the Affordable Care Act. In his current leadership position, Potter builds on his decade-long commitment to fixing America’s broken healthcare system by shining a light on the underhanded practices of big corporations and other moneyed interests that frustrate the efforts of the richest country in the world from providing basic universal healthcare for all its citizens.

Watch Wendell Potter testify before NYC’s Committee on Civil Service and Labor >>

Watch Wendell Potter in conversation with The Hill >>

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Books by Wendell Potter
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Press & Media
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Biography

His impassioned plea for healthcare reform, was driven by his industry insider status: Potter saw first hand how insurance companies could devastate the lives of customers by denying coverage to patients facing serious health issues; or by setting policy deductibles so high that customers were forced into financial ruin. In addition, his urgent call for policy action was shaped by his experience as an analyst at The Center for Public Integrity and as a consumer representative to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. These roles contributed to Potter’s expertise, and a perspective that is informed by both analytical insights and direct advocacy for consumer interests in the realm of insurance and healthcare.

New York Times Best Selling author of Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR Is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans, Potter also wrote Obamacare: What's in It for Me? What Everyone Needs to Know About the Affordable Care Act as well as For Want of a Dentist: The Rise of the Dental Therapy Movement in Tribal Nations and the U.S., Lessons from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Most recently Potter along with Nick Penniman co-authored Nation on the Take: How Big Money Corrupts Our Democracy and What We Can Do About It.

In his substack newsletter, ‘HEALTH CARE un-covered,’ Potter examines and reports on breaking news within the U.S. healthcare system and insurance industry, and its impact on patient care.

Potter’s unique perspective blends insurance industry insider knowledge with fervent dedication to transform healthcare. Frequently hosted by physician, attorney, policy maker, employer, and other professional groups eager for insight on issues of concern, he engages audiences on a wide range of topics:

  • Expanding insurance coverage while lowering deductibles and copays
  • Improving access to quality healthcare, especially in rural areas
  • How health care reform can help companies recruit and retain employees
  • Increasing the control doctors have over patient care
  • Obtaining justice for clients foiled by an insurance company
  • Countering the insurance industry's anti-health reform propaganda
  • Discovering how and why insurance companies apply social determinants and pre-existing conditions to define available coverage and policy pricing

As the most influential advocate for healthcare reform, Wendell Potter exposes the dark underbelly of health insurance companies, shedding light on their deceptive tactics to maximize profits. Potter's courageous stance has catapulted him into the forefront of the healthcare reform movement, earning him accolades as a compassionate and influential thought leader.