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Rob Kall: Can you talk about that.
Wendell Potter: I made the point that one reason why the uninsured - the number of uninsured has been going up is a direct - there's a direct correlation to the behavior of private insurance companies when they are rescinding policies and kicking people off their - or, you know, making their policies no longer valid. Those people can rarely get coverage anywhere else. So they join the ranks of the uninsured. And the employees of the companies that are purged often are winding up there as well. So I wanted to make sure that the members of Congress understood that it is - many of the people who are uninsured are working people that cannot afford to get insurance. And, you know, they'd love to have coverage. But they can't afford it.
Rob Kall: You mentioned, in your testimony, that some families were given short notice that their rates went up to $44,000 a year?
Wendell Potter: Exactly right. That happened a few years ago. It was a CIGNA group insurance plan. It was - there were people who had families - they were in two states, California and New Jersey, primarily. And CIGNA reviewed the business and decided that it needed to increase the premiums dramatically. And as a consequence, some members - some employees would have to pay $44,000 a year for their premiums. And that was much more than a lot of them made in a year.
Rob Kall: And how many employees were affected by this particular decision? Do you know?
Wendell Potter: There were a few hundred. I don't recall now the exact number. But, again, there were people in California and New Jersey and, I think, maybe some other states. But those states in particular were affected.
Rob Kall: So, in other words, one or two individuals in this plan might have a problem, some kind of a heart problem or cancer or something like that that could cost hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars, or maybe a head injury, something like that, or a spinal cord injury that gets very expensive
Wendell Potter: Yeah.
Rob Kall: -- and the company could basically, to protect itself from the expense, just cut off all the people?
Wendell Potter: Yeah. In this case, what they did - they said that - I think they sent the company or this organization a letter that was the group, saying that they were going to increase
Rob Kall: You mentioned the group, didn't you? Didn't you, in your testimony
Wendell Potter: Yeah.
Rob Kall: -- mention the group?
Wendell Potter: Yeah. It's an entertainment group. It's kind of like an association in which people who are in one way or another involved in the entertainment industry - they were getting their insurance through this group. And the - what happened is they were given three months to either agree to pay the additional amount or get - you know, say goodbye. And good luck to you finding insurance anywhere else.
Rob Kall: And what happened?
Wendell Potter: Well, they - you know, if you were facing premiums of $44,000 a year, that's not an option for most people. So they - you know, the group had no - no alternative but to try to find coverage somewhere else. I assume they got some kind of policy somewhere. But I don't know exactly what their insurance coverage looks like now. But I can guarantee you that it would be probably something with very limited benefits.
