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Humana CEO Michael McCallister on the impact on employers and Americans of rising health-care costs.
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Figure healthcare coverage is good good bet that healthcare coverage could soon be gone to the Congressional Budget Office predicting when -- Americans.
Could lose employer sponsored health care coverage because.
Other new health care law of the CBO citing apparently the laws -- certainly as a major reason.
To adopt health care executive -- whether this news making inside.
-- -- -- -- CEO Mike -- might -- how big deal is that and is -- a realistic deal.
Well Neil I don't think anybody really knows what the number is I can tell you that over the last year and a half or so I've spent a lot of time when business people and and of course everyone's done the math to try to figure out what the best path forward is for them as a business.
They've evaluated the penalties in the cost of insurance and and the cost of health insurance for employees is is a problem because of fundamental cost of health care is costs are too high and rising too fast so I don't know what.
The actual numbers gonna be at the end of the day it is all sorts of projections out there but I think there will be.
Some shifting from the current the current employer based system to.
Potentially what goes on.
Changes well you don't have to be Warren Buffett says to do the math here in figure if -- a small medium even a large.
-- business.
And these health care costs are skyrocketing premiums are skyrocketing.
You might just pay the penalty.
Take the bullet and jump your plan because you come out cheaper in the -- the question I guess is how many movies.
-- quite possible and some of some probably will.
A lot of businesses feel like it's important component of what they do with their people and then they feel in an obligation and a desire to.
Continue to provide that benefit so that's why I think he has certainly is -- are.
You have a do you think that a lot of the same ones that want to stick with our coverage.
Are facing relative either charging more support cutting back what is or isn't covered even the so called carte Blanche plans where we know everything is included multiple.
MRI's whatever you need to debts being scale back even for the best and most of the liberal.
Policy well that's son who has been going on for sometime -- and have -- I guess under the -- up -- Well I mean the the -- shifted to employees employers.
Businesses you know and has been sort of steady.
I can tell you that the did it plans out there have a lot higher deductibles and they once did and that's not all bad because it does sort of engage folks in decision making and trying to find value for money which we try to help.
With transparency tools that sort of thing so that's been going on for -- while it it it may have decelerating a little bit but I think the trends have been there for some time.
Very few Americans -- as you politicians certainly saw with the advent of the health care law that premiums would go up to the degree.
They have not.
Is this the industry's way of sticking it back to the president we're saying well we warned you this was coming anyway would this have happened without healthcare -- what.
Well we'll certainly cost have been going up for some time.
You know we say all the time that -- premiums are real simple function of what the underlying cost of services are.
And there's been a lot of pressure there's a big opportunity I think to get people to seek out more value for money we try to do that with the various tools and and information that we provide.
And I think we do it through our business structure we try to help the chronically -- -- we're talking about Medicare where there's a huge problem.
Find better productivity.
Value for money better coordination -- with a lot of work going on to attack was a fundamentally big problem and that is cost or TI.
They're rising too fast in the bill has some things and at that have has a lot of things that people are gonna like relative -- coverage and some of the provisions around keeping our kids our plans and that sort of thing.
But there's an argument about whether there's a real cost control mechanisms in there and I think we're gonna have to see how that plays out over time alright Mike thank you very much makes him.
