Thread by @wendellpotter

I appreciate @HillaryClinton’s honesty in her assessment of the power of the insurance industry.

As a former industry spinmeister, let me tell you why I now disagree.

nytimes.com/2019/11/07/us/…

Hillary is remembering what happened in the 90s, when I worked at Humana and we tanked the nation’s first attempt at single payer since the famed Nixon/Kennedy failure.

The industry came out with what are now its greatest hits — like dubbing what we now call “Medicare for All,” “government run health care.”

Public opinion that had been rising in support of single payer dropped like a rock.

Fast forward 25 years and the industry play now is the same as it was then. Why, then, should Clinton expect to feel any differently about passage of single payer?

A few reasons:

1) A majority of Americans who receive health insurance through their employer now say they support a switch to #MedicareForAll.

2) A majority of small business owners support #MedicareForAll. (96% of small employers already don’t offer health insurance because it’s too expensive, but this is still important.)

3) The number of Americans receiving health insurance through an employer is falling — and now close to 50%, down from closer to 70% two decades ago.

4) And those that do get coverage through an employer increasingly find it too expensive. The average family insurance plan now costs more than $20,000 annually.

5) And furthermore, those people find it too expensive *to use.* Nearly 100 million Americans are now “underinsured” — meaning their deductibles and copays are so high they can’t afford to go to a doctor or hospital if they need to.

6) A majority of Americans support #MedicareForAll even after it has been attacked. Simply remind people they’re OOP costs, premiums and deductibles will go away — and they’re all for it.

Finally, and this is harder to track, we didn’t have politicians like @BernieSanders and @ewarren ten and 25 years ago with the power those two have now.

Their social media followings, their email lists, the media they draw — it all contributes to getting out the truth about the broken for-profit health insurance system the industry was able to lie about for years.

There’s now a chorus of voices, led by Sanders and Warren, that are saying, “enough!”

The industry can’t beat that with lobbyists or campaign cash. And politicians like @JoeBiden and @PeteButtigieg who keep defending the insurance industry will go down with them when this system collapses.