Wendell Potter, Case Study Example

The purpose of this paper is to examine and apply business dilemmas and ethical incongruities inherent in our nation’s current health insurance debate. Wendell Potter states feels many Americans are oblivious to their current policy and buy their policies without even knowing the simple eccentrics of what exists in their policies. Senator Rockefeller has spoken to the Senate and asked the analysts to attempt to clarify the insurance offerings by the insurance industries to make the regulations clear to the customers so that they receive fair and just policies that do not contain exclusionary clauses that are unfamiliar to the lay person. “Radio talk show hosts have good relationships with public relation persons in regards to the new health reform activists in order to investigate the unethical behaviors of the government with relation to the insurance companies.” (“Wendell Potter on Health Insurance Campaign versus Health Reform”). Insurance companies are said to intentionally confusing the sick with the idea to dump off the sick with the intent to turn away the sick after they make a claim such as dumping them for justification of closing their application with respect to a pre-existing condition

Wendell Potters further speaks on ethics and campaigns where Congress has forced many people into bankruptcy so that the government can become rich in order to satisfy the investors on Wall Street. “They have no intention of keeping the customers yet they take the applications and often the premiums and later dump them for pre-existing conditions or unfair justifications.” (“Wendell Potter Ethics Speech”). Insurance companies take themselves through the groundwork to manipulate public opinion and do whatever it takes to ensure the public relations and Wall Street upper management keep their pockets rich. They are not involved in the people’s needs rather they are involved in strengthening the profits of their pocket books and using scare tactics to accomplish this. “Many isolated stories through beaurocats are heard to show that socialism is headed in full force in the United States.” (“Wendell Potter Ethics Speech”).  The insurance companies are determined to make sure socialized medicine does not become part of the medical system because wealthy investors and hedge fund investors will be the ones that lose out.

As of August 24, 2009 prior to the Health Reform Bill being passed, there was much debate over the ethics of private insurance companies denying coverage for pre-existing conditions. “Industry employees spoke out for the need of bipartisan legislation and the unintended consequences of a government run health plan to compete with private insurers.” (Fuhrman’s & Johnson, 2009).  Larry Loew who heads Cornerstone group’s states that the people should not vehemently be concerned with the issues of pre-existing conditions because he plans to ensure his employees are covered and feels they will approve any future reforms in the future.

WellPoint CEO Angel Braly blamed nearly 40% of premium increases at Blue Cross on people that deemed to dare to get ill. She has an absurd way of blame shifting doesn’t she? She failed to empathize with three particular customers that stated their lives had been ruined by the premiums and left over bills from Blue Cross coverage. She called it a ‘triumph of bites over substance. (Dugan, 2010). People wonder that is this CEO and what planet exactly does she live on? She actually lives on the planet called ‘Public Relations’ where she is only concerned for the company Blue Cross and the top dollar and has little to no concern for the customers that keeps the company afloat. These pre-existing policies that exist in simple conditions as high blood pressure are simply outrageous where a patient is not covered for medication and doctor visits for a period of eighteen months. What are we living in the Soviet Union or in Saudi Arabia? Where are the ethics? Why are these companies allowed to set such discretions and get away with it under the law? People are forced to buy insurance coverage but their lives and health are at risk because they cannot afford to pay extra out of their pocket in addition to their premiums whilst waiting for the terms of the pre-existing policy terms to kick in. Are the insurance companies waiting for them to die before their policy commences with relation to the pre-existing condition?  There is much need for change with relation to private insurance change in legislation and there further is need for social medicine to be considered. As a result social medicine was passed just last month in both houses and approved by the United States of American President Barrack Obama. This is a welcome and glorified change much needed in the U.S. and will make its mark in the history books.

Major ethical dilemmas in business include abusive or intimidating behavior, lying, conflicts of interest, bribery, corporate intelligence, sexual harassment, environmental issues, insider trading issues, fraud, intellectual property rights and privacy issues within small businesses and corporations. Plato argued that “ethics is a mixture of the arts and sciences, moderation and fitness, proportion and beauty, intelligence and wisdom and the pleasures of the soul which can include some good and bad.” (Hoffman, 1978). “Pluralists take the entire opposite approach with the fashion that on one thing is completely good. A pluralist might view beauty as aesthetic experience, knowledge and personal affection rather than simply seeing it as a vision of a piece of simply beauty for what it is.” (Hoffman, 1978).  Pragmatists on the other hand think differently all together. They vehemently believe that the ends have just as good a purpose as the means and both directions should be equally considered ethically when evaluating a situation.

Managers have codes of conduct that must supersede activities that they can participate in whilst in the position they are involved in with the company. For example professionals in a company must adhere to standards set forth by licensing committees of professional examiners of engineers, nurses, accountants, etc. There is a professional examination and a certain committee that meets regularly to ensure they are adhering to these standards whilst practicing just as lawyers have to adhere to a strict code of conduct and doctors have to adhere to the Hippocratic Oath. Each have a separate code of conduct in which they must strictly adhere to and any ethical non-adherence from such standards can result in discharge from their position including felony criminal charges being brought against the individual and/or company if it is found that the company was involved in any criminal act related to the immoral misconduct of the professional employee. For example: The AICPA is responsible for disciplining the CPA firms of accountants that are ethically not up to par with the Code of Conduct. Accountants are adhered to professional standards under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 passed by Congress after a number of financial scandals developed. Further accountants are adhered to following the laws under sections 11 and 12 of the 1933 Securities Act. This is simply an example of how a professional within a business is mandated to follow a very strong and vehemently tightly bonded ethical Code of Conduct legislated by the government of the United States. The ethical responsibility does not simply stop at the organizational level for it continues to the criminal level if fault is found and can continue to the business level if it is found that the business participated in a criminal or unethical act in any manner. The acts are mandated by federal laws.

There are Ethical Rules and Disciplinary Considerations to be followed according to Washington, D.C. which were delegated around August 1983 for all professional workers who were mandated to pass professional entrance examinations. According to Bates v State Bar of Arizona (1977) it was found that an attorney shall not advertise himself in magazines, newspapers, radios or television shows for the purposes of advertising his legal services. His advertisement was in ethical violation of Disciplinary Rule 2-101B which was incorporated with Rule 29 (a) of the Arizona Supreme Court Rule. It should be noted at all states differ with their advertising rules for attorneys.

Further rules of Justiceness pertaining to rules of ethicalness, fairness, distributeness, procedural impropropriety, and interactive justice should be adhered to by the judiciary with respect to the laws and a person’s human and civil rights. As seen with the many anti-abortion rallies at the capitol there are different views on women’s rights to abort unborn children. Though not morally right, any infringement according to the law would be unconstitutional to prevent a woman of this present day from having an abortion.

Does the justification for the right of an individual’s choices mean it is right for the matter of the best of all involved as defined for a utilitarianism society? The concepts of goodness are based on monoism and pluralism which are based in the intrinsic good of people and the other based on too much pleasure is not good for one individual. Pluralists believe no one good thing is essentially the best thing for a person. People should have a mixture of things in their life to have a healthy balance physically and emotionally stable life.

The philosophy of virtue ethics are divulged daily when judges make decisions as applied to the law and what society dictates as what ought to be the right decision. We assume that judges will make decisions according to what is conventionally moral and what a person of good moral character would make. They also have strict moral codes to follow according to the law or can and will be turned into the Special Council for any infringements. When situations occur where insurance company personnel and representatives do not make decisions according to the philosophy of virtue ethics the people judge them according to theories of justice and virtue deeming their decision immoral and unfit for society.

The theories of ethical thought are considered consequential theories of ethical thought because with anything good or bad in life there are consequences for one’s actions. “Acts are judged good or bad based on whether they achieve their desired results. Acts further can be judged universally whether they conform to society’s norms or values. Actions are judged based on whether they improve human capacities such as intelligence, wisdom, health and self-restraint.”  (“Ethics, Social Responsibility and the Business Manager”).

References

Wendell Potter on Health Insurance Campaign versus Health Reform Retrieved April 30, 2010 from, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ezcrkc6SIaU&feature=related

Wendell Potter Ethics Speech Retrieved April 30, 2010 from, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IONn9Vi0diY&feature=related

Health Insurance Employers Telling Employees What to do on Their Time Off Retrieved April 30, 2010 from, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125107323271252625.html

Boosting Profits by Ensuring Pre-Existing Conditions Retrieved April 30, 2010 from, http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/patients/articles/?storyId=32957

Hoffman, K. Emerging Business Ethics Issues New York: American Institute for Property and Underwriters, 1978.

Dover, E. Ethics, Social Responsibility and the Business Manager New York: Thomson Learning, 2008.