Potter sleeps better since quitting insurers to join critics - Corrected
"My compensation at Cigna was in the six figures," ex-health insurer spokesman Wendell Potter says. "Today I make a fraction of what I made as a flack. More like journalists' wages again. That's fine, cause money can't buy a good night's sleep."
(See Correction to original item at bottom) The conversion of Wendell Potter, who after 20 years advancing health insurers' agenda quit as Cigna's top spokesman to back Obama's reforms and denounce industry tactics, has touched nerves for scores of readers.
Some say they're inspired by Potter's account of his change of life, after he visited poor peoples' clinics and talked long with friends like Rev. Bill Golderer, who hosted last night's Center City "town hall" meeting on health care.
Others ask if a PR man can really change his heart, or does he just change clients, from investor-owned Cigna, to his new Democratic allies and the Center for Media and Democracy where he's now a consultant?
"My compensation at Cigna was in the six figures," Potter told me this morning. "Today I make a fraction of what I made as a flack. More like journalists' wages again. That's fine, cause money can't buy a good night's sleep."
NEW: A Philadelphia attorney asks, "What's a flack?" It's a paid public-relations person. A spokesman. A mouthpiece. Possibly derived from "flak-catcher," WWII term for a military press liaison charged with facing the tough questions about deadly conflicts.
CORRECTION: The original version of this item wrongly stated that investor George Soros was a supporter of the Center for Media and Democracy. According to the Center's Diane Farsetta: "Neither George Soros nor the Open Society Institute funds our organization. In the interest of transparency, we list our funders on our website, here (our IRS 990 reports can be downloaded from the same link): http://www.prwatch.org/finances.html