Aetna President Discusses Health Care Reform

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Also Included In: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Article Date: 22 Nov 2007 - 6:00 PDT

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Aetna President Mark Bertolini as part of a campaign to discuss U.S. health care reform with business leaders and lawmakers spoke this week in Charlotte, N.C., the Charlotte Observer reports. In an interview with the Observer, Bertolini said that everyone in the nation should be required to have health insurance, adding that this should be done through a public-private system, not a single-payer system.

"The result of a single-payer system is decreased access and services," he said, adding, "I don't think Americans are willing to give up the access to care they have at the level of quality they have." He also advocated the expansion of Medicaid and SCHIP.

Although nationwide health reform is still years away, he said states should push for local changes to improve health insurance coverage. Bertolini said one solution would be reducing the number of coverage mandates imposed on insurers through state laws. He said that mandates make it hard to tailor a plan to young adults because they do not need or want to pay for coverage of conditions that typically affect people later in life.

"If we had more flexibility at the state level, we could actually put together a product that appeals to them," he said. He also said tailored plans would help low-income, uninsured people purchase coverage (Garloch, Charlotte Observer, 11/21).

Letter to the Editor
Although it might be "easy to believe that employer-based health care is headed for the scrap heap of history," many "employers believe strongly in the existing model that companies are providing workers," John Castellani, president of the Business Roundtable, writes in a USA Today letter to the editor in response to an article on employer-based health insurance. Castellani continues that it is "clear that reform is needed" because the "current system isn't working." He concludes that "business, government and consumers" must "act now and act together to make the health care system better and more affordable for everyone" (Castellani, USA Today, 11/20).

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