Richard Burr: “One thing that we learned is that not every employer planned for their retirees' coverage. It may cover a very narrow…”

“One thing that we learned is that not every employer planned for their retirees' coverage. It may cover a very narrow set of generics or certain areas of the drug industry. We have designed this Medicare benefit to say to employers, if you made a promise to retirees, why do you not look at this new plan which might be better coverage and less money and buy your employees, pay the premium for them to be a part of this, supply the deductible for them. Let them be part of a larger plan where we really leverage the volume of individuals in the Medicare plan by pooling them all into these private sector entities, companies that are willing to create different options because of the size of the pool they are interested in participating, interested in designing a benefit package that might fit the different health care needs.”