Bodaken Addresses Health Care Costs, Coverage Expansion Efforts in Interview
The San Francisco Chronicle on Sunday published an interview with Blue Shield of California Chair, President and CEO Bruce Bodaken.
According to Bodaken, U.S. health care costs have continued to increase in part because of the aging U.S. population and because of the increased number of available technologies. In addition, Bodaken said that Medicare and Medicaid are "underfunding" physicians and hospitals, a trend that "increases by as much as 10% the premiums for private companies and for the state and others that are providing good health care benefits."
Bodaken said that California could provide health insurance to all children through an expansion of Healthy Families "on a sliding scale relative to income." Bodaken said, "There is a way of getting a million or two million kids in California covered if we were to put programs in place."
Bodaken also addressed efforts to reform the U.S. health care system, Medicare and health coverage for undocumented immigrants (San Francisco Chronicle, 7/24).