Aetna CEO in private meeting: Single-payer, I think we should have that debate

[babylonsister]

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/5/12/15629716/aetna-ceo-bertolini-single-payer


Aetna CEO in private meeting: “Single-payer, I think we should have that debate”
A top insurance executive signals openness to government-financed health care.
Updated by Sarah [e-mail] May 12, 2017, 9:35am EDT


The chief executive of one of the country’s largest health insurance companies says he is open to having a single-payer debate.

“Single-payer, I think we should have that debate as a nation,” Aetna chief executive Mark Bertolini said Thursday.

Bertolini spoke to a private meeting where Aetna employees could ask questions of their chief executive. A partial video of his remarks provided to Vox includes Bertolini responding to a question about single-payer health care.

“In the news media, it is reporting that the Republican health plan is paving the way to a single-payer system,” an Aetna employee asks Bertolini. “What are your thoughts on that, and how would it impact Aetna?”

This was his response:

Single-payer, I think we should have that debate as a nation. But let me remind everybody that Aetna was the first financial intermediary for Medicare. We cut the first check for Medicare in 1965 to Hartford Hospital for $517.57.

The government doesn’t administer anything. the first thing they’ve ever tried to administer in social programs was the ACA, and that didn’t go so well. So the industry has always been the back room for government. If the government wants to pay all the bills, and employers want to stop offering coverage, and we can be there in a public private partnership to do the work we do today with Medicare, and with Medicaid at every state level, we run the Medicaid programs for them, then let’s have that conversation.

But if we want to turn it all over to the government to run, is the government really the right place to run all this stuff? And that’s the debate that needs to be had. They could finance it, and if there is one financer, and you could call that single-payer. ...

We’re going to pay for it one way or another. What we have to do is we have to get the costs right. We have to get people healthy. It’s not about who is paying the bill. It’s about what we’re doing to get the costs down. The Democrats are now saying that with the new Republican bill, wait there is nothing in here about getting costs down. That’s the point. And so that’s the place we’re headed as a company. It’s not just about paying the bills.

What Bertolini seems open to is a version of single-payer where the federal government would contract out certain functions private companies, such as Aetna. These insurers would, in his own words, become a “back room for government.”

Aetna spokesperson T.J. Crawford said that Bertolini was not “advocating” for a single-payer system.

“Mark was certainly not advocating for a single-payer system, but instead encouraging debate while pointing out that public-private partnerships have been the backbone of the more successful government health care programs (examples include administering Medicare Advantage or Medicaid managed care),” he said in an emailed statement. “In other words, partnering works when done the right way.”

[mwooldri]

1. Hmmm.... Medicare for all plus nationalizing Aetna, Cigna, BCBS, UHC, etc ?

Aetna's Mark Bertolini is right - we need that debate. Even if we end up with Medicare for All looking like the present Medicare system it might not be such a bad thing. Better than AHCA anyway. Premiums based on income, not need.

[AngryAmish]

2. We already have single payer. It is known as Blue Cross.

I am in support of a health care tax farming system run by the Nationals, BlueCross, Aetna etc. Let them bend the cost curve.

[bresue]

4. FLOOD INSURANCE

Has been offered to home owners by the government for years. There is no way insurance companies could cover catastrophic risks. Health care is so expensive currently that health insurance companies cannot effectively cover risks either because of over-valued health care prices.

[MattP]

3. I want to know what all the healthcare ceo's and Trump talked about in that meeting

[msongs]

5. get the costs right equals get rid of overpaid CEOs. nt

[Xolodno]

6. Real simple solution to this and doesn't require nationalizing insurance companies.

Using the ACA, still require everyone to buy insurance, but instead of a tax penalty, you get your paycheck deducted via a new part of medicare. For those unemployed, designated as high risk, etc. insurers and government contribute via a pool by market share.

[Turbineguy]

7. We could have single payer

Which would provide the basic needs, but no frills. Preventative medicine, hospitalization, surgery, prescriptions etc. Additional insurance provides upgrades (single hospital rooms and such, deluxe birthing suites, etc.).

[GoCubsGo]

9. Yup. I think that is what Australia has.

The insurance companies would still have business providing policies with the extra bells and whistles for whoever wants to pay for them.

[Barack_America]

8. They want a nice government check to administer single-payer claims.

Realistically, this is what our single-payer system would look like.