Aetna CFO: Republican leaders understand: don't repeal the individual mandate

Republican leaders grandstanding about repeal of the Affordable Care Act understand that there will be no repeal and that the health insurance companies are dead set against repeal.  They see 32 million new customers coming, according to a report  on Prof. Brad Delong's site about the discussion at the JP Morgan Health Care Conference.


According to Joseph M. Zubretsky, Chief Financial Officer at Aetna health Insurance (and remember that the CFO of an insurer is a big megillah):

Republicans understand that a rifle shot approach to tearing out specific health reform provisions, particularly the individual mandate, would not bode well for their business. “The unintended consequence of repealing and replacing part of the legislation is the biggest risk here,” he said. “If guaranteed issue stays but the enforceable mandate disappears, you need another mechanism to make the costs in the risk pool work.” Zubretsky said Aetna has been in touch with the GOP on the issue and “believe the Republican leaders we’ve been talking to understand the consequences of decoupling the mandate from the guaranteed issue.”

Translation: we can't accept all comers - and we can't pay out 80% of revenue in benefits (which the health care reform act requires ) unless we have paying policyholders.  Many people won't buy insurance if they don't have to buy it until they get sick.  So all these court fights against the individual mandate and all the talk of repeal of it is exactly what the health insurers don't want.

on NPR Obama defends health reform bill as historic

President Barack Obama, in an interview with NPR, pushed back against those on the left who complain that the health care bill about to be voted by the Senate is fatally flawed because it lacks a government insurance plan - a "public option". It is the biggest reform since Medicare, perhaps Social Security, says the President, slipping uncharacteristically into hyperbole. The transcript is HERE.

I agree with Paul Waldman of the American Prospect. Although it is galling to be forced by the likes of Joseph Lieberman and the cloture rule to take a big bite out of what a majority is ready to embrace, Waldman explains:

For all its weaknesses, even the Senate's version of health reform, which would hopefully move more in the direction of the House's version when the two are merged in conference, contains an extraordinary number of beneficial features. (You can find an excellent summary of both bills here, from the Kaiser Family Foundation.)

It insures over 30 million more people.

It expands Medicaid coverage.

It outlaws denials for pre-existing conditions, rescission, gender discrimination in premiums, and both annual and lifetime coverage caps.

It provides hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies for low- and middle-income people to buy insurance.

It makes it so if you lose your job, you don't lose your health insurance.

It forces insurers to allow people as old as 26 to stay on their parents' policies.

It establishes dozens of pilot programs to test new ways of saving money and improving care. All of these provisions, and many others, will substantially improve people's lives.

And the insurance exchange puts in place the structure through which further improvements can be made in the years ahead.

Rockefeller: Howard Dean is Irresponsible and Wrong

"Until now healthcare has been an every 15 - 20 years issue. Now it's going to be every year." I think that is true. We are greatly increasing the number of the insured, bringing nearly all into the system, we take responsibility for all outcomes. We must calculate rather contribution of every sector of the populace (with the exception of the undocumented aliens).

Sen. Jay Rockefeller (Dem. - W. Va.) takes on the pouting Howard Dean with remarkable force and effect: