Letter from Aetna President Mark Bertolini to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
Dear Senator Reid:
Aetna for many years has chosen to be a force for positive change in the health care policy arena. This effort has included advancing major legislation on mental health parity and our early advocacy of genetic non-discrimination legislation. With regard to overall health reform, we have for over four years advocated marketplace reforms, an individual coverage requirement with financial assistance for those who need it, and a focus on paying for quality and not quantity in health care as integral pieces of any reform package. We also are committed to a guaranteed issue system of coverage with sensible rating bands that allows millions more to be covered without disadvantaging those who currently have coverage.
In light of certain blog-inspired statements being made on the Senate floor, I want to set the record straight about my company’s current and future dealings in the competitive marketplace.
Recent reports claim that Aetna is making a concerted effort to “shed” membership. This assertion is simply not true. What we have done is to accurately price our product offerings, recognizing that we must price to the underlying costs of health care services for each pool of customers, and also to create a fair margin that we can use to make the right kinds of investments for the future. These investments include our work in the areas of disease management and chronic care programs, wellness and prevention, and health IT to improve the quality of care and streamline the health care system. Our investments are designed to help improve access to quality, affordable health care. We strive to be a well managed, profitable company, and to be good stewards of the trust millions have placed in us for over 150 years.
These challenging economic times are forcing health care consumers to search for lower cost health care options or to drop coverage all together. Membership losses we project going into 2010 also reflect the market reality that some large and small business customers are placing an increased emphasis on near-term cost savings during this recession, driving them to lower-cost products available to them in the open market. Our products, in comparison, include premium, value-added services like advanced health IT platforms, disease management protocols, and other services that are designed to bend the cost curve over time. Some of what we have lost in membership, other companies have added to their rolls.
We have seen over the past months a concerted strategy to vilify our sector regardless of the facts. Such attacks include repeated assertions of "outrageous profits" in our sector, which, in actuality, are not outrageous at all – Fortune magazine ranks our sector 35th in profitability, behind several others within the health care system, with profits in the 2.2 percent range.
I implore all of us to stay focused on the original objectives of reforming our health care system, so that we can provide access to those who are uninsured and ensure our reform effort makes health care more affordable for everyone. We look forward to working with you to achieve the goal of real health care reform.
Sincerely,
Mark Bertolini
President
Aetna Inc.
http://www.aetna.com/about-aetna-insurance/initiatives/health-care-reform/record_straight12_09.html
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