Verizon CEO Advocates Health Reform

HDM Breaking News, November 19, 2008

In a U.S. Senate Finance Committee hearing Nov. 18, Ivan Seidenberg, chairman and CEO of Verizon Communications, stressed the need for immediate health care reform, including using information technology to empower consumers.

Seidenberg is chairman of the Business Roundtable’s Consumer Health and Retirement Initiative. The Roundtable represents employers who provide health coverage to nearly 35 million American workers and their families. “We believe health care reform should be addressed now as we work our way through these difficult financial times,” Seidenberg, CEO of the New York-based telecommunications company, told the committee members.

He outlined the roundtable’s four-pronged health reform proposal, which includes:

* Creating greater consumer value by using I.T. to empower consumers with more information about high-quality health care.
* Providing more affordable insurance options for all Americans by creating an open, all-inclusive private market for health insurance. It would replace a highly fragmented, state-by-state market with multi-state markets.
* Requiring all Americans to obtain health insurance, either through their employer or the private market. Americans also would be encouraged to participate in prevention or chronic care programs.
* Offering health insurance payment assistance to low-income, uninsured Americans.

More information on the proposal is available at businessroundtable.org.

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