PHILADELPHIA , Pennsylvania ( CNN ) -- Wendell Potter says he is finished defending the insurance industry , which he says is `` beholden to Wall Street . '' Wendell Potter once was a vice president in the public relations department for insurance giant Cigna . At a hearing last week before the Senate Commerce Committee , the former vice president of corporate communications at the insurance giant Cigna testified , `` I know from personal experience that members of Congress and the public have good reason to question the honesty and trustworthiness of the insurance industry . '' The committee 's chairman , Jay Rockefeller , D-West Virginia , told Potter , `` You are better than Russell Crowe on 'The Insider , ' `` referring to the award-winning 1999 film about cigarette company executive Jeffrey Wigand , who blew the whistle on the tobacco industry 's practices . In his testimony and during an interview with CNN , Potter described how underwriters at his former company would drive small businesses with expensive insurance claims to dump their Cigna policies . Industry executives refer to the practice as `` purging , '' Potter said . `` When that business comes up for renewal , the underwriters jack the rates up so much , the employer has no choice but to drop insurance , '' Potter said . CNN obtained a transcript of a 2008 Cigna conference call with investors in which company executives use the term `` purge . '' But in an e-mail to CNN , Cigna spokesman Chris Curran denied the company engages in purging . `` We do not practice that . We will offer rates that are reflective of the competitive group health insurance market . We always encourage our clients to compare our proposed rates to those available from other carriers , '' Curran wrote . Cigna had revenue of $ 19.1 billion in 2008 , according to the company Web site . P. `` It was almost like an electrical jolt , '' Potter said . At the event , Potter took pictures of doctors offering free health care to the uninsured . `` The volunteer doctors were seeing patients in barns , people in animal stalls , '' Potter said . `` It changed it for me . '' He says he finally decided to quit in 2007 after Cigna 's controversial handling of an insurance claim made by the family of a California teenager , Nataline Sarkysian . The Sarkysian family made repeated appeals at news conferences for Cigna to approve a liver transplant for the 17-year-old , who had leukemia . Cigna initially declined to cover the operation , then reversed its decision . Sarkysian died hours after the company 's reversal . As Cigna 's spokesman during the controversy , Potter had no role in the decision to deny coverage . But he was inundated with angry phone calls . `` After she died , my voice mail and my e-mail inbox were just filled with messages from people who were just outraged , `` Potter said . Now a senior fellow on health care for the nonpartisan watchdog group Center for Media and Democracy , Potter writes a blog on health care reform . In particular , he is keeping an eye on efforts to defeat legislation that would give Americans the option of joining a government health care plan , something he now supports . He says he witnessed how the insurance industry torpedoed health care reform efforts during the Clinton administration . `` They conduct what I call duplicitous PR campaigns . They 'll say what people want to hear , '' Potter says . `` It 's how they operate . You can not trust these guys . '' Potter is also taking aim at some of the TV commercials aired by groups opposed to changes . One such ad caught Potter 's eye . Run by the conservative organization Patients United Now , the ad says that `` now , Washington wants to bring Canadian-style health care to the U.S. '' `` Sometimes you 'll see misleading information . And sometimes you 'll see outright lies , like that [ ad ] is , '' Potter said , referring to the spot . Patients United Now spokeswoman Amy Menefee disagreed . `` We 're not saying there 's a Canada health care act of 2009 , '' Menefee said . `` It is a trend . It 's trending in that direction . '' Potter notes that the leading proposals for health care in Congress do not seek to set up Canadian-style health care in the United States . He says claims that overhauling the system would lead to `` rationing '' of care are missing his point . `` What we have is rationing by corporate executives who are beholden to Wall Street . And it happens all the time , '' Potter said .
Wendell Potter says insurance companies only out to please Wall Street investors . Cigna would make it hard to renew policies for some expensive clients , he says . Former PR executive left the company after teenager died awaiting transplant . Cigna says it does not purge and encourages business to compare rates .