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The Straight Story

(48,121 posts)
Fri Jan 20, 2012, 02:07 PM Jan 2012

Healthcare Individual Mandate Too Weak to Matter, Aetna CEO Says

Wall Street’s concern about the U.S. Supreme Court’s looming decision on President Obama’s healthcare overhaul is overblown because the provision at the heart of the law already has little teeth, the top executive at Aetna Inc. said.

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Some insurers have argued that a strong individual mandate is critical for the stability of the insurance pool by ensuring that healthy people buy insurance in addition to sick patients.

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“Even as it exists today, the individual mandate is weak and still presents problems because the penalty is so low,” Aetna Chief Executive Mark Bertolini said in an interview on Wednesday. “If you get rid of it, I don’t know that it makes all that much of a difference.”

The Supreme Court decision, Bertolini said, “presents more of an opportunity for us to revisit how healthcare reform is structured than actually undoing the underlying dynamics or fundamentals of what they put in the bill.”

Bertolini said that the parts of the overhaul law that have already been implemented are “not going anywhere.”

http://www.insurancejournal.com/news/national/2012/01/19/231693.htm

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Healthcare Individual Mandate Too Weak to Matter, Aetna CEO Says (Original Post) The Straight Story Jan 2012 OP
lol, repugs heads will explode when they figure this out. n/t. okieinpain Jan 2012 #1
in other words, we can keep gouging you no matter what the court says nt msongs Jan 2012 #2
IOW, get ready for big rate increases. PA Democrat Jan 2012 #3
people with conditions are obviously going to take the tax penalty instead of bankrupting themselves MisterP Jan 2012 #4
You can blow out a candle thelordofhell Jan 2012 #5
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