"Championing quality improvement and value in the health care system is a passion of mine, and I'm able to bring about change through private equity activities."
"What we need are different types of insurance, some of which have copays, some that have coinsurance, but they need to offer a better first layer of coverage."
"Every morning, I have high expectations, and then I confront the reality of what happens at 4 o'clock."
"I am not a lawyer or an expert on the Constitution. But as the chairman and CEO of a major health plan, I had a ringside seat to the entire health-care reform process."
"After much reflection, I have concluded that the federal individual mandate, which requires all Americans to purchase health insurance starting in 2014, will not be upheld."
"We must find a way to cover those who are no longer healthy but need care."
"The federal government should encourage rather than micromanage market reform in all 50 states. Since health care is local, private-sector innovation in conjunction with state-level reform of the individual and small-group markets is a better approach."
"We confuse insurance with our moral obligation to provide health-care services to people. And what we try to do is finance our moral obligation through the insurance system, which punishes the people who are fiscally responsible to buy insurance."
"Having no choice doesn't result in innovation and performance improvement."
"One person uninsured is one person too many."
"I've been on record since 2005 saying we need to find a way to eliminate the use of the pre-existing condition. The way to do that is really to get everyone in the insurance pool, and that way, we'll have people who need health services today, some who need it tomorrow, and some who won't need it for quite some time."
"In health care, you really need a balance of people who need health care today, tomorrow, and in the future."
"Younger participants in the exchanges and who purchase individual insurance paid more, and they just didn't see the value, and therefore, they did not come forward and sign up."
"Deliver bad news early and personally."
"Every institution is perfectly capable of forgetting what it has learned in three years."
"It's difficult to compete against a player that's also refereeing the game."
"I think if we're going to have a requirement that everyone have equal access to insurance, you really have to have a way to make certain that everyone is expected to participate."
"I think the U.S. is conflicted. When it comes to our own health care, we all want the best - access to the latest and most important technology. At the same time, health care is typically purchased in an institutional setting. So we purchase it in the aggregate, but we consume it as individuals."
"We are a wealthy country. We also are the global engine of innovation in health care, whether it's the pharmaceutical industry or the creation of medical devices."
"If an individual sticks up a bank and walks off with $25,000, there are consequences. If someone who really could have had an insurance policy consumes $25,000 worth of health care, everyone else pays for that."
"I think reasonable people could agree that, at some point, there's enough income that someone should be expected to participate in the health-care system."
"In my career, there have been many things I am fortunate enough to be proud of. Yet one of the things I feel most strongly about is the culture we created during the ten years I was at Aetna, and its enduring impact."
"In my experience, it is the leader - the CEO - who plays the crucial role in creating and 'owning' an organization's culture, setting the tone, and executing on that consistently."
"We know a culture doesn't just happen; it is the result of what you do every day."
"I believe in the power of a positive, high-performance culture, which begins with strong ethical values at the core."
