-In a much-talked-about article Sunday, the New York Times reported that "The White House, facing increasing skepticism over President Obama's call for a public insurance plan to compete with the private sector, signaled Sunday that it was willing to compromise and would consider a proposal for a nonprofit health cooperative being developed in the Senate."
-In a commentary for CNN, former longtime insurance company spokesman Wendell Potter blasts health insurers and their "army of PR people":
Until I quit my job last year, I was one of the leaders of that army. I had a very successful career and was my company's voice to the media and the public for several years.
Potter writes. And he maintains -- citing his two decades of experience in such campaigns -- that much of the opposition to the Obama administration's efforts at health-insurance reform is fueled by ghostwriters within the industry. He writes:
So the next time you hear someone warning against a "government takeover" of our health care system, or that the creation of a public health insurance option would send us down the "slippery slope toward socialism," know that someone like I used to be wrote those terms, knowing it might turn many of the very people who would benefit most from meaningful reform into unwitting spokespeople for the industry.
-In North Carolina, a high-school teacher was arrested for allegedly filing thousands of dollars in false burglary claims, in some cases claiming things that she'd rented. From the North Carolina Department of Insurance press release:
Investigators say she...gave the company several computer print-outs, many from Rent-A-Centers in Durham. An investigator with Liberty Mutual found several of the items Blount claimed stolen were actually still in the store.
