Wendell Potter: I'm pushing 70. It is time for me to blow the whistle like I never have before.

I'm going to take you into the rooms where life-and-death decisions are made, introduce you to people who pull the strings in DC and take you back in time to explain how we got here.

My name is Wendell Potter and for 20 years I worked as a senior executive at health insurance companies, and I saw how they confuse their customers and dump the sick – all so they can satisfy their Wall Street investors.

That’s how I introduced myself to the Senate Commerce Committee 12 years ago today. It was my first time out as a critic of an industry I had lied for since 1989. 

I’ve talked and written a lot about that day and how that testimony–and a few other events leading up to it–changed my life. But there’s plenty more I can and will be saying about what I used to do for a living and how I misled you. 

With this newsletter, I’ll be pulling the curtains back wider than I have before to show how health insurance companies really operate, what motivates senior executives and what gets said and decided behind closed doors in C-suite meetings that have far-reaching effects on you and your family–and our country. 

As I was sitting at the witness table waiting for Sen. Jay Rockefeller to call on me, I was thinking, what the hell have I gotten myself into. I had been a part of well-financed efforts in the past to assassinate the character of industry critics, so I was mentally preparing to be the next victim. There was no question my life was going to be different. I figured it wouldn’t be good.

But I got lucky. Not only has the industry been unsuccessful in shutting me up (Michael Jackson actually came closer to doing that, which is just one of the stories waiting to be told), that testimony opened doors to opportunities I could never have imagined. I’ve written books and done countless interviews, helped create a new investigative journalism site, and launched two nonprofit health care reform advocacy organizations. 

I’ve also gotten to know many remarkable people, like Stan Brock, the saint who founded Remote Area Medical, and Hilda and Grigor Sarkisyan, whose only daughter died after Cigna refused to pay for a liver transplant her doctors were confident would save her life. It’s not a stretch to say that Stan’s selfless work and Nataline’s death, at the age of 17, saved my life.

But, to be perfectly honest, I’ve pulled a few punches along the way, mostly out of fear of retaliation. But now, as I approach my 70th birthday, most of that fear is gone.

Ever wonder what takes place in the days before a big for-profit insurance company releases quarterly earnings, and what the life of an insurance company CEO is really like? Curious about how people like me (the old me) go about planning and carrying out propaganda campaigns to kill good legislation and get members of Congress to be industry shills? Frustrated that the advocacy community can’t seem to advance the ball more than inches at a time and all too often get their asses kicked? Sign up for this newsletter and pull up a chair.

I’ll take you behind the scenes and share details that are still fresh in my mind. And maybe more important than anything else, I’ll keep you posted on what my old bosses are up to these days to satisfy the insatiable appetite of those Wall Street investors and explain what that means for you, your family. (For an example of what you can expect, see my post about UnitedHealthcare’s botched rollout of a new policy to maximize profits). I’ll provide background, historical context, and analysis that only a former insider can provide. 

And for those of you who have an interest in knowing more about me–how I got to the here and now–I’ll throw in some personal stories from time to time. Over time I’ll be piecing together a kind of running autobiography. I’ll take you to places like Spear Branch Road, my first address deep in the Tennessee mountains, and introduce you to people who’ve influenced and shaped me in one way or another. You’ll meet characters like Ma Hattie and Ma Horn and Pa Mullins and aunts, uncles, cousins and neighbors who made Spear Branch such a magical community.  

Our journey together will take us from the hollers of East Tennessee to Memphis, Nashville and Washington, just three of the other places I’ve called home. We’ll go to church and school (and a few dens of iniquity) and take trips very far from Spear Branch, many of them on corporate jets and helicopters, and we’ll stay at some very fine hotels and eat high on the hog. 

Most people these days know me as a whistleblower, but I have also been a political reporter, a press secretary, a lobbyist, the spokesman for a chain of banks the feds shut down, and a partner in an Atlanta PR firm. We’ll take a Lear jet from Geneva to Cairo and back, ride a camel around the pyramids, visit a Swiss bank, and fly home on the Concorde. And we’ll take a bush plane to a little island in the Bering Sea that’s closer to Siberia than Alaska–and a hell of a long way from Spear Branch. 

I’ve had incredible experiences, but not all of them have been fun. Not by a long shot. I’ll tell you about the night I spent in the Fulton County, Georgia, drunk tank (deservedly so) and other very low points in my life. 

June 24 is important to me for another life-altering reason. That’s something else I’ve never written about before. But I will if I can muster the courage and find the words. 

As you can imagine, I have plenty of regrets that I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to atone for. I know a lot of folks aren’t willing to cut me any slack despite what I do and say now. I get that. But here’s the thing: If I hadn’t done what I did, I wouldn’t know what I know. 

I’ll write at least once a week, and you won’t have to pay a dime. But for those of you who become paying subscribers, I’ll invite you to join me for conversations with some interesting folks, some famous, some not, all of them important in their own way. And I’ll host Ask Me Anything sessions once a month or so. 

P.S.: If you are an “insider” in a company or organization like America’s Health Insurance Plans (now known simply as AHIP because insurers are not really insurers anymore) and have personal knowledge of illegal, unethical or morally questionable practices that the public and policymakers should know about, please reach out to me at WendellPotter@protonmail.com. That’s a secure address.

Being a whistleblower myself, I understand how fear of retaliation can hold people back from stepping forward with what they know or have seen. I would be happy to talk with you before you share any information you might have to address any concerns. I will keep your name and our communications confidential. So, please reach out. You, too, can help make people’s lives better by sharing what you know. As they say, “See something, say something.”

Special thanks to Philadelphia-based cartoonist Eric Stone of IntoxiComix for creating the art for this piece. Keep an eye out for Stone’s work in future Wendell Potter NOW pieces. Reach him by email at ecstone31@gmail.com.