Aetna CEO: Obamacare Could Double Insurance Premiums
CNBC…..video at this link.
To provide all Americans with health insurance, premiums will have to rise to pay for it, Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini told CNBC’s ”Closing Bell” on Wednesday.
“If we’re going to insure all Americans, which is a worthy and appropriate cause, then somebody has to pay for it,” Bertolini said of the expected premium increases under Obamacare.
Bertolini said that insurance premiums could double in some places just on the basis of what types of policies people buy today.
He also said that when Obamacare is fully implemented, it won’t start the way people had hoped and it won’t be cheaper.
Over the longer run, the key to bringing down premiums will be controlling health care costs, he added. “It’ll be fits and starts, but we’ll get there,” Bertolini said.
Higher premiums also will not necessarily mean higher margins for Aetna. “The people coming into the system will be sicker because they have not used services,” Bertolini said. “So in the initial part of this program it will cost more to take care of people because they have been going without health care for so long.”
The Aetna executive also weighed in on the debate over the country’s fiscal situation.
Wild Thing’s comment.…………….
Everything is going to cost more and there will be much less coverage. They need to start calling it what it is…..socialized medicine. People used to come to the USA for better care, now the entire world including all of us will have no place to go.