Aetna CEO Says Individual Mandate To Be Ruled Unconstitutional
In case you haven’t seen, Kaiser Health News has an interview with Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini in which he discusses the individual mandate in the health care law. When asked whether the law can work without a mandate, the Aetna CEO opined that “it’s pretty likely that [the mandate] won’t survive the constitutional challenge,” at which point “we’ll have a whole different ballgame” because “there isn’t anyone who thinks [the law] can stand without the individual mandate.”
Remember, these comments come from the CEO of one of the biggest beneficiaries of the law – insurance companies that collectively stand to gain about 30 million new customers thanks to the law’s coverage expansions. The comments raise the important question: If even an insurance company CEO can’t defend the unprecedented government mandate for all Americans to purchase a product as constitutional, who can?