All of the tactics used by the oil, beverage, and banking industries to influence lawmakers at every level of government were pulled straight from the cigarette makers’ playbook: Distract people from the real problem; generate fear; split communities with rhetoric, pitting one group against another; encourage people to doubt scientific conclusions; question whether there really is a problem; and say one thing in public while working secretly to do the opposite.
Wendell Potter, Deadly Spin:  An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out on How Corporate PR is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans (2010)

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Wendell Potter was the Vice President of corporate communications at CIGNA.  In other words, he was directly involved in telling the public what to think about CIGNA, and really, about the whole industry.   He finally got “fed up.”

And so, he wrote a book to tell the secrets.

I presented my synopsis of his book, Deadly Spin, for the second time at the Urban Engagement Book Club last week.  (This twice monthly book club is sponsored by CitySquare, and I present synopses of books dealing with social justice and poverty issues.  We meet twice a month – at two different locations, with two different audiences.  Thus, the second presentation on this book).

Take a good look at the quote above:  “tactics…  pulled straight from the cigarette makers’ playbook.”  You remember those tactics don’t you?  The tobacco companies told us, in multitudes of ways, including under oath to Congress, that nicotine was not addicting.  They argued for years that smoking tobacco was not truly harmful.

Was this outright lying?  Willful blindness?  I lean toward outright lying.

What drives such tactics?

Profits trump all else.

And, I understand this focus.  When a company does not make a profit, it goes out of business.  Earning profits is the big issue – some would say the only issue – in a society structured like ours.

But, I was disturbed all over again as I revisited Deadly Spin.  Here’s my summary of the “practices” of the health care industry (from the book):

The Health Care Industry adjusted, as needed, but always in the direction of protecting and expanding profits.  For example:

• Health Care companies would deny coverage (for preexisting conditions)
• Health Care companies would refuse to pay for procedures/treatments
• Health Care companies would drop coverage
• Health Care companies would raise deductibles to very high levels
• Health Care companies consider every pay out for medical coverage a “loss” (they call it that!)
• Health Care companies drop entire “companies” from coverage when they start “losing” money on them

The Health Care Industry masterfully used Public Relations (PR), the “invisible” weapon, to obtain and maintain public support…

In the book, Mr. Potter basically describes the misdirection, half-truths, and all sorts of other tactics used by the best PR professionals — including creating serious sounding associations and entities — all intended to protect and maximize the profits of the companies in the industry.

To state the obvious – if these tactics are practiced day in and day out in the tobacco industry, and the health care industry, do you think they might be practiced in other industries? – Yep!

I don’t really know what to suggest as we think about this.  I will suggest this much – we should become hyper-aware of such practices, and learn to doubt any pronouncements and messages of any company or organization represented in an industry.  There’s a pretty good chance they are practicing “deadly spin.”

You know, not quite “trust, but verify” – more like “doubt, thus verify”.

Click on over to the Wikipedia article about Wendell Potter.  It will add to your understating of his motives, and his commitment to provide genuine health care to folks who need it – which is, pretty much, everybody, don’t you think?  Here are a couple of key excerpts from the Wikipedia article

“Since I walked away as head of communications at a top health insurance company in May 2008, I’ve worked tirelessly as an outspoken critic of corporate PR and the distortion and fear manufactured by America’s health insurance industry. It is a PR juggernaut that is bankrolled by millions of dollars, rivaling lobbying budgets and underwriting many “non-partisan” and “grassroots” organizations.”

On September 15, 2009, Potter appeared before the United States House of Representatives Democratic Steering and Policy Committee. Potter said in his opening statement that if Congress “fails to create a public insurance option to compete with private insurers, the bill it sends to the president might as well be called the Insurance Industry Profit Protection and Enhancement Act.”

My wife, in one of her “I’m disgusted” moments (moments I share), asked “is there no one with genuine empathy these days?”  Pretty good question.