Employer-provided health care benefits are not likely to disappear even as a growing number of Americans lose their jobs amid a struggling economy, the head of the nation's third-largest health insurer said on November 19.
"I believe it is one of the strengths of the US health care system," Aetna Inc Chief Executive Officer Ron Williams told the Reuters Health Summit in New York. Most people with health insurance in the United States receive coverage through their employer. But 1.2 million Americans have lost their jobs so far this year as unemployment reaches 6.5 percent, a nearly 15-year high. That rate is expected to climb as high as about 7.5 percent next year, according to economists and US Federal Reserve officials. Aetna has about 17.7 million members, the vast majority coming through employer-sponsored plans.
While growing layoffs are likely to push growth in Aetna's offerings for individuals, Williams said large companies are still at the forefront of the insurance market. Such employers are the most knowledgeable health care buyers and have been behind many key changes in the US health insurance sector. "They have a strategic point of view about how a benefit policy fits in with business strategy, and they really quite honestly push us to innovate," he said.
Williams' comments come as the Democratic-led Congress and US President-elect Barack Obama prepare to tackle health care reform next year, with an emphasis on the nearly 46 million Americans who have no health insurance.
Millions more do not have enough coverage - the so-called underinsured - and even those with policies from employers face rising premiums and co-pays as health care costs continue to rise.
Obama has called for maintaining job-based health insurance for those who have it while finding other ways to offer care to those who need it. But some Democrats, most notably Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, advocate a more universal approach that would require all Americans to have coverage. Looking at how large employers have streamlined their offerings to continue to provide benefits while controlling costs could offer some lessons, said Williams, who was one of several CEOs who met with Obama earlier this year to discuss health care and economic issues.
"We need better ways to pool small employers, small groups, and we need better ways to pool individuals," he said.
"We believe everyone should be covered, and we believe that those individuals who can afford to buy insurance should be expected to buy insurance," he said.
"Those individuals who can't afford it should receive some form of assistance, and I'll leave it to others to determine whether it's vouchers or tax credits or subsidies or whatever seems to make sense."