Medicare itself may be the most prominent beneficiary of its Medicare Advantage plans.
That's what several health care industry professionals and lawmakers suggested this week during Medicare hearings held by the House Ways and Means Committee.
Medicare Advantage has the potential to be "the solution to entitlement reform around health benefits," testified Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini. Aetna is seeking government approval of its acquisition of Humana. If the deal goes through, it would give Aetna market coverage of more than 90 percent of the population that's eligible for Medicare. Then, he said, Aetna could offer a "nationally portable" Advantage plan that theoretically would put the brakes on Medicare's escalating cost.
Recommended For You
Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to BenefitsPRO, part of your ALM digital membership.
Your access to unlimited BenefitsPRO content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
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.
