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Former Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini told CNBC on Wednesday that loopholes in the affordable care law could be fixed without getting rid of the law entirely.
“Tearing up … this very important program now, in the midst of this pandemic and huge unemployment, would be a huge mistake,” Bertolini said on “Squawk on the Street”.
Bertolini’s comments came a day after the Supreme Court heard arguments in California v. Texas, the third time that the constitutionality of the ACA, also known as Obamacare, has been brought before the country’s High Court. The law looks likely to survive yet again, after two conservative judges suggested the individual warrant provision could be struck down separately while the rest remain in place.
President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress have frequently criticized Obamacare, unsuccessfully pledging for years to “repeal and replace” health care legislation championed by former President Barack Obama. It was promulgated in 2010.
Bertolini, who served as Aetna’s chief executive before CVS acquired the health insurer in 2018, also criticized the Affordable Care Act. In 2017, he said Obamacare’s insurance markets were on a “death spiral,” according to the Washington Post. While at the helm, the company also left these ACA markets completely for health coverage.
President-elect Joe Biden, who served two terms as Obama’s vice president, vowed to strengthen Obamacare by increasing the number of people eligible for insurance subsidies and adding a public option, which would allow some Americans buy government-run health insurance. plan similar to Medicare or Medicaid.
“My transition team will soon begin their work to flesh out the details so that we can get going, fight costs, increase access, lower prescription drug prices,” Biden said in a speech Tuesday.
Bertolini has his own ideas on how to improve Obamacare. “I think the ACA can be fixed,” he said Wednesday. “I think we need to look at the option of reducing age eligibility by testing Medicare for older people who are not Medicaid eligible.
“I think if we had done this in the beginning, instead of the ACA, we could have done the same, much cheaper, because the risk mechanisms and the administrative systems of Medicare and Medicaid work very well,” he said. -he adds.
Medicare is primarily intended for people aged 65 or over, as well as some younger and disabled people. Medicaid is the health coverage program for low-income Americans, and Obamacare has allowed states to expand their eligibility. In total, more than 20 million Americans have obtained health insurance coverage through the ACA.
“I think withdrawing the bill now would be a huge mistake,” Bertolini said. “I think we can fix that by aligning the risk mechanisms with Medicaid and Medicare, by changing the eligibility requirements on Medicare, which would give us Medicare for more versus ‘Medicare for All’.” Some progressives, like Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Have proposed switching to single-payer health insurance in the United States, calling it “Medicare for All.”
The Supreme Court is expected to render a decision on the latest Obamacare case in June.
– CNBC’s Tucker Higgins and Berkeley Lovelace Jr. contributed to this report.
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