Wendell Potter, a former VP at American health insurance giant Cigna, is speaking out about his past efforts to smear Canada’s public healthcare system.

“I must come clean about a lie I spread as a health insurance exec,” he writes. “We spent big $$ to push the idea that Canada’s single-payer system was awful & the U.S. system much better. It was a lie & the nations’ COVID responses prove it.”

Canada’s public healthcare has long been a target of lobbyists and American politicians. Right-wing politicians and media frequently attack our single-payer healthcare, with alleged long wait-times being the focus of their attacks.

Potter admits he propagated this message himself. According to the former health insurance executive, industry lobbyists and his colleagues used “cherry-picked data & anecdotes to make people think Canadians wait endlessly for their care.”

“It’s a lie & I’ll always regret the disservice I did to folks on both sides of the border,” he goes on to say.

The COVID-19 crisis has revealed the truth, argues Potter, “you learn a lot about a healthcare system when a global crisis hits & different nations have different results.”

“Canada’s single-payer system is saving lives. The U.S. profit-driven corporate model is failing,” he says. “I’ll regret slandering Canada’s system for the rest of my life.”

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