Obamacare’s CEO on what’s next after Aetna’s exits
Insurers like Aetna are dropping out. Rate requests are on the rise. It’s been a messy few weeks for Obamacare — and it’s Kevin Counihan’s job to clean it up. After Obamacare's exchanges sputtered to launch in 2013, Counihan was hired as marketplace CEO to make sure that a management mistake like that never happened again. But with major players like Aetna and UnitedHealth mostly walking away, and the remaining insurers asking for 24% rate hikes on average, Counihan's facing the biggest challenges of his tenure. Counihan sketches out his job as Obamacare’s marketplace CEO (starts at the 3:00 mark), explains how he’s thinking about the turnover in the market and why Aetna’s exit from 11 states is business as usual (4:30), who’s poised to win on the exchanges (9:45), how HHS is working to plug gaps as Aetna and other insurers walk away from markets (12:45), whether it matters if large insurers participate at all (19:00), how he’s approaching customers who are loath to purchase coverage (25:00), and why he’s not sweating Donald Trump getting rid of Obamacare (29:30). We’d appreciate your help: Please share PULSE CHECK and rate us on your favorite podcast app! Have questions, suggestions or feedback? Email ddiamond@politico.com.