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Fearer Brings Wealth of Experience to Exchange Board

Late yesterday, Assembly Speaker John Perez named his choice to sit on the board of the state Health Benefits Exchange. Paul Fearer will become the fourth exchange board member, bringing that agency one step closer to beginning work.

Fearer is the former chair of PacAdvantage, a statewide health-insurance buying pool. That consortium ran for 14 years, and shut down in 2006. Fearer, currently chair of the Pacific Business Group on Health, is human resources director for Union Bank.

All of that health benefit experience dovetails well with the other high-powered members of the exchange board — former secretary of state Health and Human Services Kim Belshe, current HHS Secretary Diana Dooley and former Schwarzenegger chief of staff Susan Kennedy.

Two exchange board members have been appointed by Schwarzenegger, one by Governor Brown and now one by Perez.

The fifth member of the board is the Senate’s responsibility, but it’s not a direct appointment by Darrell Steinberg, but rather an appointment by the Senate Rules Committee, chaired by Steinberg.

Its next meeting will be on Wednesday.

 

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