bertolini. i am the 14th chairman and ceo of et ma. i thank you for having me here today to discuss our acquisition of humana. we are in a time of understand precedented change in our country as we look at how health care is renderered, how much it costs and what the outcomes are around health care. and it is our view that we are -- it is time for a change. payment reform is on the forefront, expansion of coverage, every american should have health care coverage. aetna was one of the first companies to call for an guaranteed issue and individual mandate for health care coverage. what i would like to talk about today is why the humana acquisition is important to furthering our revolution as a health care company and as a health care system in the united states focused on providing the highest quality available, the best and most affordable coverage available for all americans. after the acquisition aetna will have a proukt portfolio balanced more evenly. today the market competes on price and cho

we will now start with mark bertolini. ni: my name is mark bertolini. i am the 14 chairman and ceo of founded in 1853 in hartford, connecticut. i thank you for having me here today to discuss our accusation .- acquisition of humana we are in a time of unprecedented change in our country when we look at health care. it is our view that it is time for change. payment reform is on the forefront. age -- on and covers -- every american should have health care coverage. what i would like to talk about today is my the humana is important to furthering our evolution as a health care company and as a health care system in the united states, focused on providing the highest quality available, the best, and most affordable coverage available for all americans. after the acquisition, aetna will have a product portfolio more balanced with other products such as medicare and medicaid. today, the market competes on price and choice. this will not change. to win in the market, we believe consumers should be able to pick products focused on improving the health of the m

bertolini said. i can't just start an insurance company that will have any hope of competing with the combined entity once this transaction is completed. yes, all health care is local like all politics is local, but there are national politics and national markets and those markets are profoundly important for the department of justice to review in scrutinizing this merger because of the barriers to entry and that's true of other industries as well, so that's the perspective that prompts my question. >> yes, sir, and i certainly appreciate that perspective. what i can share with you is that there are many new players that have entered the market and continued to enter the market. i would like to begin with reference to oscar that mr. bertolini just brought up serving new york and new jersey. year one of their entry of that highly competitive marketplace, they accumulated 45,000 new members and the company was founded based on venture capital funds and a google investment that will accelerate their en

we have to introduce our ceo, mark bertolini, and george barrett, and knox singleton.he money we wasted, and one of the most exciting, you know, we see the genome, and i was hoping we'd get more therapeutics by now. it takes a long time to go, obviously, from a lab bench into a patient setting, but one thing we should be able to do is do a lot more in preventative medicine if you can find things that predispose someone to a chronic illness. i don't know how much progress we're making or how much illness is not environmental, not all based on the genome, but the part that is, we should be able to save a lot of money by preventing people from getting sick in the first place. >> well, i don't know about 75, but my prediction is that we're going to be hurdling towards 100 and the number of people over 65, the traditional definition of seniorhood is going to go dramatically. it's going to be partly driven by the genomic revolution because your ability to predict is the ability to prevent whether it's diabetes, whether it's stroke, heart disease, cancer. today, it's a new fi

bertolini and mr. swedish. i'm sensing that you want to respond to that. you can with that in to this question. i've questions for both of you. both of your company's have represented that entry into health insurance markets is relatively easy. if that is the case, why not enter into the markets that are already in, instead of buying those competitors? hy cap edna -- why can't aetna expand instead of hem?ng ant i think thei: trade-off as to whether or not enter markets versus acquire markets is simply an economic discussion. how do we want to deploy our capital, and how quickly do we want to get there? aetna was going to spend the next five years getting into markets that cover 70% of the medicare eligible. why is that more important? seniors are more portable. wey want to keep the prices offered to them which are often zero policy premiums. with this acquisition, when it wills, if appropriate, we be in markets covering 92% of the medicare eligible's across the country. mr. swedish? i can probably at go some of the same comments. with respect to being spec