A huge player in the U.S. health insurance industry is committed to staying the course with health care reform, at least for the foreseeable future.
Speaking at a health care conference in San Francisco, Mark Bertolini, CEO of Aetna, said his company wasn't ready to give up on selling insurance via exchanges to the public, despite losing money on the venture last year.
"This is our first attempt to make this happen, and we believe we have an obligation to stick it out and work with it until we know that it won't work, and I believe it is too early to give up on this process," Bertolini said.
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Aetna can afford to experiment with exchange-based policies because that business represents just 6 percent of revenue.
"So from a tactical standpoint, this is not breaking the bank one way or the other," he said.
Like other exchange insurance sellers, Aetna will adjust its packages going forward to find out what works and what doesn't. Meantwhile, another speaker at the conference, representing the Obama administration, said the government will continue to fine-tune the system as well to strike a balance between the needs of insurers and customers.
The administration will adjust the special enrollment periods offered in the last two years to respond to insurers' complaints that the periods resulted in new customers who were getting insurance to deal with immediate medical needs.
"There are some that we need to clarify because they're subject frankly to abuse," said Andy Slavitt, the acting head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
