Ongoing Dilemma of Health Insurance
On April 10, 2017, the Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy and the Yale Health Law & Policy Society hosted Brian Sullivan ’74, former Vice President and General Counsel of Capital Blue Cross and graduate of Yale Law School, for a lunch talk on health insurance and the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Mr. Sullivan’s talk, “The Ongoing Dilemma of Health Insurance: What’s New and What’s Not,” provided an insurer’s perspective on the ins and outs of the ACA. The lively discussion helped provide context for the ACA’s impact on health insurance. Mr. Sullivan discussed the sometimes conflicting demands placed on the health insurance system. He explained that requiring insurers to provide an expanding list of fully-paid preventive services each year was driving up premiums in plans purchased through the ACA while insurance traditionally aims to protect individuals against unknown risk. The more services, such as preventive services, each insurance plan must cover annually, the more plans end up as medical payment plans, rather than insurance, with corresponding higher cost.
