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J U LY | A U G U S T 2 0 1 1 W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G N A T I O N A L N U R S E 13 I n his book, Deadly Spin, former pri- vate health insurance executive Wendell Potter credits the nurses of the California Nurses Association and their protest on behalf of Nataline Sarkisyan in December 2007 as one of the primary reasons for the "crisis of con- science" that led him to speak out. The year 2007 was a time of undeniable soul-searching for Potter. The book gives an intimate glimpse not only into Potter's world of corporate power and privilege but also into his personal journey. He is an accom- plished writer and journalist, so the book is well researched and written with clarity and purpose. During that time, Potter worked for CIGNA, the insurance giant based in Philadelphia and the Sarkisyan family's insurer. Nataline's story was a classic case that nurses hear all too often. The 17-year- old's doctors believed she had enough of a chance for survival to want to give her a liver transplant, but CIGNA denied the proce- dure. With media help from the California Nurses Association and the support of Southern California's extended Armenian community, the family protested and raised a huge public outcry. On page 154 of his book, Potter writes, "My phone started ringing off the hook as soon as the nurses' release went out. I knew I had a cri- sis on my hands when calls poured in not only from local TV and radio stations but also from the Los Angeles Times, CNN, and NBC—and even from the general public. The release, which was posted on the homepage of CNA's Web site, also appealed to the public to call CIGNA demanding that it 'provide the care Nataline needs.'" CIGNA eventually relented, but it was too late. Nataline was too ill to receive the new liver and on Dec. 20, 2007, she died. Potter's book recounts the story of that protest and its impact, not only on CIGNA, but on the entire national healthcare reform debate. The nurses, and their steadfast protest and clear-minded press work on behalf of the family and the issue, had changed the course of history. Potter would never be the same. In another section of Deadly Spin, Potter outlines in great detail his participation as a CIGNA executive in the efforts to discredit Michael Moore and the 2007 documentary film, SiCKO. The film chronicles the stories of several insured patients (including yours truly) and their families through the broken and brutal healthcare system nurses con- front every day. In SiCKO, Moore challenged the notion that simply having insurance means having the single-standard of high- quality care that nurses strongly support as patient advocates. Potter was charged with making sure Moore's film was maligned, and he traveled to places the nurses had arranged for early showings of the film and even to Sacramen- to, where the nurses helped arrange for an early screening of the movie and for Moore to testify at a hearing held by California Sen. Sheila Kuehl, then chief sponsor of the state's single-payer legislation. Potter was a "spy" for the for-profit health insurance industry and an audience member in Sacramento for that nurse-sponsored, West Coast premiere of the film. "Moore had been persuaded by the California Nurses Association and Physicians for a National Health Program—both advocates of a single- payer health care system in the United States—to show the movie in Sacramento first because California lawmakers had twice approved bills creating a single-payer system in the state...I probably would have joined all the others in the audience in giving the movie a standing ovation, just as the people at Cannes did when it was first screened." Most of Potter's book provides a bird's-eye view of the inner workings of the private health insurance industry's spin doctors—the folks like Potter who make sure even the most horrific denials and decisions are painted in the most positive light possible. Many sections of the book give readers insights about the political maneuverings of the for-profit health insurance industry and the work of shadowy front groups to advance the propaganda Potter helped fashion and to craft the healthcare reform legisla- tion that would best benefit the health insurance industry—not patients and not nurses. One of the more fascinat- ing sections of his book outlines the strategy as follows, "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' play- book: Distract people from the real prob- lem; generate fear; split communities with rhetoric, pitting one group against another; encourage people to doubt scientific conclu- sions; question whether there really is a problem; and say one thing in public while working secretly to do the opposite." No matter what Potter was paid to spin, he just could not overcome the truth of the cry nurses helped raise. As he closes out his book, Potter thanks that young, beautiful woman whose life was cut short. One life can and does make a difference in this world, and registered nurses often stand with patients and their loved ones at the most difficult moments and during times when other support systems have forsaken them. That power and the absolute dedica- tion to patient advocacy showed Wendell Potter a whole new world over which even the "deadly spin" of the insurance industry held little sway. The book provides a great history of the reform effort and helps us see even more clearly how critical nurses are to hastening the day when a single standard of high- quality care for all without financial barriers will be the law of the land and not the result of deathbed protests. —Donna Smith Deadly Spin: An Insurance Company Insider Speaks Out About How Corporate PR is Killing Health Care and Deceiving Americans By Wendell Potter; Bloomsbury Press Books_REV 2 8/16/11 5:16 PM Page 13