As technical issues continue to plague the sign-up for Obamacare, several major health insurer CEOs headed to Washington to talk to White House officials Wednesday.
Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini, WellpointCEO Joseph R. Swedish and Humana Inc. CEO Bruce Broussard attended the meeting, White House spokesman Jay Carney confirmed.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius also met with the CEOs, CNN confirmed.
On Oct. 1, the Affordable Care Act started allowing consumers to shop and sign up for subsidized health insurance coverage. But the President’s signature healthcare sign-up Web page has not been able to keep up with the traffic volume and been plagued by glitches, making it tough for Americans to sign up for insurance coverage.
Carney said the CEOs were invited to chat with senior White House staff about “implementation and enrollment, and efforts to address the technical issues identified with healthcare.gov.”
Wellpoint is one of the larger participants in Obamacare, with health exchanges in 14 states where it operates on Blue Cross Blue Shield licenses.
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Aetna offers coverage in 10 states, through Aetna or Coventry Health Care, which was acquired this spring, spokeswoman Cynthia Michener confirmed. The firm is also offering coverage in seven other states, but just in “limited geographic areas,” she said.
Aetna has received much criticism for withdrawing from a number of states where it had originally applied to offer health insurance, including California, New York and New Jersey.
Humana is another larger participant offering insurance on state health exchanges in Illinois, Mississippi, Kentucky and Colorado, among others.
Date: October 23, 2013