aetna and others are also warning small businesses to brace for increases, but some of these may be offset with tax credits. another alternative to coverage options - none of the above - involves paying penalties which may be cheaper than providing insurance. "it may affect hiring at some small businesses, but not large ones. but it won't hurt the economic recovery in any major way." analysts say this is the time of year to begin sorting out your options and figuring how much in premiums, co-pays and deductables you're willing to pay. one helpful website is healthcare.gov. the surpreme court is set to hear a case today refered to as "pay for delay." that's when major drug companies pay generic competitors to keep close copies of the drug off the market until a certain date. regulators say the practice costs consumers, insurance companies and the government billions every year. it's viewed as big drug companies monopolizing the market. however, drug manufacturers see it as a way to avoid long, drawn-out patent court cases. sequester cuts are causing friction between the airline industry and

joining me to break it down is dick hoover, former chairman of aetna.come back to the show, dick. >> thanks, a pleasure. melissa: does this surprise you? >> no. basically you hit the nail on the head. it's the medical costs. melissa: yeah. >> and let's not forget we spend more than twice as much per capita on health care than any other country in the world. so, something is basically wrong with our system. melissa: why do we spend so much more? >> we pay fee-for-service and doctors who are neither saints or sinners they act like normal human beings. they prefer more money than less money. so if they can do more service, they can charge more fees. melissa: you think that's really why they d it or do they do it because they're afraid of being sued? >> second point. very good point. melissa: okay. >> they practice defensive medicine, because they always have the ambulance chasers over their shoulder. so that's another factor. but those two factors do drive up cost is something awful. melissa: so how does obamacare play into that? >> well, i guess i'm a min

the chairman and ceo of aetna, thank you for being here.come on the show and said because of obama care premiums are going down. you say get ready for sticker shock. >> i think the economy has driven that. and people fear of unemployment and slower economy people have less disposable income. so i think as we look forward i think the big impact is going to be on the individual market. as i have said before, based on all the things that we need to do, raising actuarial benefits from below 50% up to 60%, that's a 20% increase. including taxes and fees put on the affordable care act to pay for the people who are uninsured. that's another 5.5% to 6%. and normal trend, all of a sudden we're at 32% on average. >> if someone is trying to renew their health care coverage, they can expect 32% more? >> on average. >> what if they didn't have $64 -- you saw that early last week. insurance companies that ask corporations to pay that because you have to cover people that are really sick. how is that going to work itself out? why do you assist on that? >>

aetna, said 20-50 percent . they are hiking healthcare premiums. why? they have figured it out. we will pay the penalty . we'll not pay for healthcare right now. we'll sit it out and wait it out. you get sicker people in the pool and that's why the health exchange . we talking about subsidies are paid for by the federal taxpayers. we'll have pay for that just like california's did. >> john, it comes down to simple path. if you force companies to do more which they have to, it would cost more? >> if you offer more it will cost more. this is a federal government disaster. the simple truth sthere is no health insurance without healthy people . steve and elizabeth pointed out. they have no incentive toet health insurance until they need it you have the least healthy into that . that will drive up prices. rick last week talked about how one size fits all for collegings. why does he want that for healthcare? >> sabrina do you think? >> i agree with everybody here. snee>> she said everybody here, rick. >> and the majority of obama care is not going affect until 20flane and we have hund

our burners are being asked to come into centers of various cities for aetna. -- right now. whehowever, as soon as things gt better, they are escorted out. but we might begin to break that cycle. it is just wonderful to walk out on the street and see the world walking by. >> are you giving the twitter deal? >> yes, we are. we just founded a new nonprofit. black rock arts foundation, which is dedicated to spreading interactive, a collaborative art throughout the world. now we have founded but we call the burning and project. -- what we call the burning man project. it eventually leads to the event itself. this is a wonderful opportunity. the thing about burning man, when you look at the variety of people that go there, when you look at this environment, where all the normal boundaries are down in every department of human knowledge and endeavor. if you ask what possible application that we have created that may be useful loud in the desert, -- what would it have an application to? education, urban planning, disaster relief. needless to say, we are ambitious than we think we c

curren, of aetna. \ gilfillan tord share the public sector perspective. he was sure his perspective on how providers are rising to the challenge. thank you for your attention and ranches. without any further ado, we will dr. blumenthal. can you all hear me? great. . am pleased to be here my congratulations to catalyst repayment reform and folks who led the creation of this organization and project. it is very important work. part of my brief remarks will be to say what may be quite apparent to many of the. this is a unique time in the history of our health care system. the future has arrived. for decades, we have been that the pattern of expenditure was unsustainable and that lack of stability has become apparent in the debate about the federal deficit and in role of health care causing the deficit which will not be tolerated for much longer. we are at a fork in the road and are facing tough tresses. this is continue to mount and deficits continue to mount. choice wee face - the face is between rationing and re-engineering. that is not ultimately is solut

i am not just talking about silicon valley, i am talking about general mills, aetna, target. this year, in davos, at the world economic forum, there were all of these sessions about-and bringing the qualities of leadership to the forefront. that involves knowing how to renew yourself. tavis: how are the issues regard to paid leave for women and men when babies are born? >> they are much more liberal about paid leave. that -- they realize that that is the way to pay the best talent. retention is one of the biggest battles we are facing. people are becoming less attached to a particular company or employer. when they do not really care for someone as a human being, not just as a machine producing stuff, you are going to be able to repay employees at a much higher rate. tavis: patriarchy is real. male privilege israel. sometimes, even with that being the case, we miss the mark when it comes to certain issues. i was fascinated to read a variety of pieces about the decision by ms. mayer at yahoo!, that all the employees had to report back to the company headquarters. there were wo

seems across the board no matter which irns insurance company you look at aetna, blue cross, costs are going up. how is that possible? >> melissa, the one thing that wasn't exactly clear, health care reform actually changed some of the rules for community rating. when they changed those community rating rus, the carriers no clearly when you do that some premiums are going to rise. there is no doubt some of these premiums, for some individuals and small groups will fall. melissa: like who? who will get the benefit? as i read through all this, all i see is the numbers you're seeing on the screen right there, more premiums go up. who will do better? only people with preexisting conditions? >> for example, if i had a four-person bakery and all of us over 60 years of old, just the four of uu we could see a premium decrease today, i'm sorry in 2014 over today. but if you were to use that same pam compels to a younger- examples to younger workforce they will see an increase, no doubt about it. the community rating rules have changed basically from fiveo one, to three to one. which, --. meliss

aetna believes collaboration is the fastest way to promote. that means we have a dependency on ensuring readiness. looking at it from several perspectives, philosophically, chemical reengineering perspective which we heard from dr. blumenthal, technology adoption which hat stands to change our health care is delivered in the value based contacting recognizing and rewarding providers to make these critical investments. in an of itself a contract model will not singularly change the industry. aetna seeks to increase accountability within the industry by helping providers leverage technology and evidence based clinical guidelines to improve care delivery and manage complex population health data across a care delivery team. many providers have tenaciously stepped forward to chart -- chart eight challenging course of changing health care is delivered that many others have yet to take a first-ever. and so we have an opportunity to collectively collaborate, ensure that the radical transformation not only continue but that it proliferates throughout

aetna says 55% potentially and the rnc put out a report about how costs are going up.o you find your constituents are worried about costs going up, and what do you say to them. >> what they're worried about is coverage. i represent saginaw, michigan. we've got high it unemployment. we've got low wages. >> high number of uninsured. >> high number of uninsured. so the people in my community understand that health care costs are continuing to grow because we don't get the kind of preventive care that we need. so the fantasy about health care is that if we don't row void their sort of coverage that the affordable care act mandates that somehow the cost of health care will go down. the truth of matter the cost of health care goes up when we don't get the kind of preventive care, young people don't get to stay on their parents' coverage. when lifetime caps kick in and people with serious disease have to wait until they reach medicare eligibility in order to get coverage, the cost of health care will be borne by all of us one way or another. that cost will be borne by the res

retail specialist mary aetna. mary, who is getting it right? continues to get it right and vertically integrated retailers in the middle of the mall getting it right. and pretty much ch hicos. depends on the age rage but there are a lot of them doing very well. >> rick were for you, any surprises or disappointments? >> i thought the gap was a little business after surprise. i thought ross stores was a bit of a disappointment. it is unusual for them to miss. >> let's get to the issue of hello winners. with jc penney, with hello bread winners. and women entrepreneurs around the world. and is the professional woman, you think it will pay off? >> i think it will pay off for the macro level. for jc penney, i would be more worried about bringing the customers back that i lost in the last year, and not worry about the ad for yesterday and today. it is a beautiful ad but i'm not sure it'll accomplish what they hope to. >> what do you think, rick? luring in the ladies. haven't they always, retailers generally been trying to lure the ladies? what's new n

aetna 11.4%. another companies are sure to follow suit. meanwhile here's the kicker. inflation rate for 2013 is expected to be about 1.6%. do the math. 1.6% inflation. double digit increases. something doesn't work out. reformers want to say something about this. >> right. but the health insurance companies say, you know, it's okay for us to make this kind of money. >> yeah. >> clearly they think it's okay. >> they've got their defenses, so to speak. insurance companies say, look, reformers are blaming the wrong target. it's easy to blame us. think about the hospitals that aren't run successfully or efficiently. technical changes. new developments in the health industry. expensive machinery. they need to be looking at these improvements as the forcers, drivers of the increases. health insurance also points to the affordable care act. obama care we all hear about. also as a major cause of increase. something is going on. they are certainly pointing their fingers other places. the reform rs are not going for it. >> the truth must be somewhere in the middle. >> it always

blue shield and aetna moving forward with rate increases that average more than 11%. state officials say the increases are unreasonable but they have no authority to reject changes in premiums. insurers blame it on the rising cost of care and prescription drugs. >>> coming up, the question is how loud is too loud. the major city that is looking to combat noisy headphones. >>> dispute pushback from hundreds of students at stanford, the university may today approve early morning classes. the university's registrar says getting everyone scheduled under the current format is tough so they are suggesting more 8:30 classes. more classes happen between 10:00 in the morning and 2:00 in the afternoon. hundreds of students have signed a petition in protest saying it will negatively impact student life. heard that before. the student faculty senate will now address the proposal sometime today. >> because 8:30 is really early. >> a lot of important things to do late night in college. >> 5:25 right now. new york mayor michael bloomberg wants to keep his city from going deaf. the m

we think we have the right to privacy go to aetna and private insurance, but now access to your records confide things in our doctor and trust they'll never go further, but now your doctor is legally required to enter your medical history and treatments into an electronic data base part of a national data system. if you're worried about that, losing your privacy talk with your doctor keeping two sets of books. you won't offend your doctor, the hippocratic oath. they value medical privacy and now how important it is. and some. things i've discussed in keeping obamacare to avoid the land mines in the next months. >> jesse: happy birthday, i'm not sure it's a happy birthday. >> yeah. >> jesse: but you can blow out candles later. >> clayton: thanks. >> jesse: next on the rundown, an accused terrorist, no-show for court, why? because he's too sick? do you feel bad? >> stomach flu perhaps? and spring breakers marketed to 12 year olds. the fight to stop that is next. ♪ what's droid-smart ? with google now, it automatically knows when you need to leave for the airport, how much traffic there is

for small businesses, 25 to 50%, aetna it could go up 55%, blue cross/blue shield 20 to 40%.he biggest names out there and warning their customers, this is what's coming as a result of obamacare. >> alisyn: now, remember, this was not supposed to happen. you'll remember that the obama administration's rationale for obamacare, here was their stated rationale, to quote, make it for affordable and accessible. make health care more affordable and accessible. what went wrong? >> we all did interviews and the congressional budget office came out with the forecast and white house came out with the forecast and say prices would not go up. you would say how is that possible? if we're going to cover more people and welcome them into the system, you can't charge people with preexisting conditions more money and can't charge people more based on age, then, wait a second, the costs are going up. who is going to pay for that. all of the premiums go up. they with say, no, there's going to be cost savings, remember that phrase? going to come from cost savings because there's leverage with mo

one of the things we are starting to see and i'm sure that aetna sees it as well as we increase the transparency not just a quality, but also a cost, we have an increasing number of employers that are starting to say, i don't necessarily want that hospital and may not work that is charging twice as much for that inpatient stay without a corresponding twice as high level of quality. i think the transparency is an important piece, but there's another import element as well. >> for anyone is interested, cms -- i'm sorry, cpr will be hosting a national summit on the topic on june 11 in d.c. carter national summit on provider to air the issues and have an open and honest debate about what to do. there's a question online from.here jill selin about the work on developing a domain episode of payment if he could comment on not work as a partnership at brandeis. >> one in the program we are working on is going well and we have announced 48 episodes that will be central to that program. the episode based in program is moving well. on the other side we are making good progress in developing a career. i can

mentioned, there have been in some states, california specifically and a few other states, companies like aetna 20%, 25%. there's a fear out there with people with private health insurance that their rates in their states, their own private plans are going to raise. why have the rates risen and will they rise even further? >> mike, i think what we're seeing actually again is pretty good news. i'm a former insurance commissioner so i used to watch this day in and day out. in the ten years before obama care was signed into law, what we saw is double-digit increases year in and year out. small employers dropping coverage. so fewer people had insurance in their workplace and costs continued to rise. we have seen far fewer double-digit increases in the last three years than in the previous decade and more insurance commissioners like in california are really reviewing those rates carefully. are rejecting the double-digit increases. and companies for the first time ever have to spend 80 cents out of every premium dollar on health benefits, not ceo salaries, not overhead costs. so the companies had to

it could be aetna, it could be blue cross/blue shield or anybody else. we can make that determination as to what we want and then we pay for it. i don't see -- i don't think the argument has ever been used, to my memory. now, i'm going to be -- i wasn't coming down to talk about that, but i will since i am a cosponsor of the cruz amendment. i think anything you can do to get rid of obamacare is in our interest. right now our attorney general in the state of oklahoma is scott pewitt, he has a lawsuit, an amended complaint challenging the implementation of obamacare. scott pruitt is arguing that they're reinterpreting to hike taxes on oklahoma employees. that's what's happening right now in my state of oklahoma and i don't know how the polling goes. i would only say this: i sense an air of anxiety in these people trying to support right now obamacare because people have caught on. people in my state of oklahoma have caught on. we're talking about oklahoma would have to spend an april dicial $400 million over the next ten years on medicaid in order to cover

stepping back from it, nobody is descending in black helicopters and forcing people at gunpoint to the aetna insurance agency and forcing them to sign up for anything. it's an interesting theoretical question whether the government could force you to do it. the court answered that in the negative. but can it provide a modest tax incentive? it leaves you with a real choice. you don't have to buy health insurance if you don't want to, you just have to pay an additional 2.5%. that may be a good or a bad idea, it was always a conservative idea, it was always a republican idea. don't have single-payer, government-provided system. incentivize people to use, incentivize people to use the private markets. that's what happened. it's a modest tax incentive. it's, to me, unremarkable that it was upheld and somewhat remarkable that there were four people who were hysterical about it being upheld, five counting ted. [laughter] >> see, walter takes this a lot more seriously than i do. but is that 2.5%, what are the odds that'll ever go up? [laughter] >> well -- >> i rest my case. [laughter] >> that is a s