Some of us,
including me, flew to Sacramento for the US premiere of the movie and take more notes and to be more prepared.
And the industry hired a big PR firm.
The PR firm set up a front group (Health Care America) for the sole purpose of disseminating
misinformation about the health care systems around the world that are depicted
in the movie. The media contact for the group was an executive of the PR firm. It was a full-fledged assault that the industry spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on to
discredit just a movie.
And they used
the same tactics they've used in the past to beat back reform, to kill reform,
and that they're using now, including setting up these front groups and
disseminating misinformation, or having their shills use terms like "government takeover of the health care
system or putting us on a "slippery slope to socialism.
They know those are
emotion-laden terms that have an effect on a lot of people. It's something that's just indicative of what the
industry does to protect its turf and to protect its profits. The Health Benefits Coalition was set up to fight what the
industry perceived as anti-managed care legislation and also to defeat
the Patient's Bill of Rights (which it did).
So essentially what you're saying regarding Michael Moore's movie is what they were so afraid of was shining a spotlight on the shortcomings of the health care system and the demand for change?
That's right. They wanted to try to perpetuate the myth that our system is a good system that meets the needs of most Americans and to demonize the health care systems abroad that could serve as good models for us. In particular, they were disseminating misinformation about the Canadian health care system and the British health are system and even the French system. They ˜re very adept at using anecdotes to make people think, through an anecdote, that it tells the whole story of the health care system. So, they're very adept at conducting these kinds of smear campaigns.
We'll take a break now. When we return for the final installment of our interview, Wendell will discuss the industry's response to his attacks and how deciding to leave his job has changed his life. Please join us.
***
Part One of my interview with Wendell
Remote Area Medical website including 60 Minutes segment
Wendell Potter's blog at Center for Media and Democracy
Health Care for America Now website
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
1
1
