Former insurance exec raps industry PR

WASHINGTON, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- A former official with U.S. insurance giant Cigna has accused the industry of trying to manipulate public opinion over the healthcare debate.

The insurance industry knows how to use "hot words, buzzwords, buzz expressions that they know will get people upset," Wendell Potter, who was vice president of corporate communications at Cigna, told CNN.

Potter currently is back in Washington at the invitation from Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., where he is questioning insurance companies' public relations tactics.

"People talk about the government takeover of the system ... that's a buzz term that comes straight out of the insurance industry," he said.

Now a senior fellow on health care for the watchdog group Center for Media and Democracy, Potter writes a blog on healthcare reform, speaking out against efforts to defeat legislation supporting a government healthcare plan.

Potter told the Senate Commerce Committee in July about the "purging" process and assured them he knows from personal experience that "Congress and the public have good reason to question the honesty and trustworthiness of the insurance industry."