Newsmaker | Rob Geyer - Sacramento Business Journal:

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“Health care is a very timely subjecyright now. There is a tremendous amoun of discussion going onin Washington, about what is the right answer. I thinj we’re going to see movement as the debate kicks into gear over the nextfew “Bruce Bodaken has been a very strong advocat for universal coverage, to the point wherw it was kind of counter-culturapl with the health plan industry. We were one of the firsgt to contend that everyone needz tobe covered.” Are you saying that health insurance shouls be mandatory, like auto insurance? Yes. Individualsw should be mandated tohave it. It’e an absolute no-brainer for me. Get everybody give everybody access.
It’s so crucial, and everybodyh needs it and shoul dhave it. When you talk about healthn careinsurance you’re talkinvg about health care and two of the most personal and intimate thinga that we as humans deal When you combine the two it can be very If you give people the optionm of having insurance or not havinvg it, it really will create a tremendous amounrt of risk to the wholew system. If you can say “I’m healthy and I don’y need it” so you can opt out, it’sz just not going to work. That woulsd require paying higher taxes. Can our economy handlw that? For the most part, people are getting accesxs to care.
If peoplre don’t have insurance and they needemergency they’re going to the hospitals. The hospitald aren’t getting paid for that, so what they do is raiser the price on the people whocan pay, the peopler who have insurance, so there’s a cost shifty going on either way. People who have health insurance have to pay higher rates because of the peoplewho don’yt have health insurance, or they can pay higher taxes so everybody has healtb insurance. Our position is that everybodyy needs to be contributing to the everybody needs to be paying intothe system. If everybodyg had insurance, the rateds would go down.
There are small clinics popping up all Some are staffed by volunteer and there is oftenno charge, or a minimall charge, to patients. Are they competition for Blue Shield? They shouldn’gt be. We’re a health plan, an insurancs carrier. Our job is to facilitate and enable people to have acceses to health care ina cost-effective way. (Retailk clinics are) a convenienc e item for people, and we want to make sure the clinics are providing good quality Do you see a relationship betwee n Blue Shield and retail clinics downthe road? Yes, down the road. Absolutely. We’re trying to figure out now wher they fit intothe landscape.
We evaluate every bit of new every new twist on the Welook for, one, is it good for Two, is it going to add value for is it going to provide cost-effectivde treatment so they get quality We evaluate those things, and if it makes sensew we will include it in the benefit plan.