Aetna CEO urges mandatory healthcare coverage

Americans should be required to buy health insurance, bringing healthier people into plans that will help bring down costs, Ron Williams, chairman and CEO of Aetna, told a Detroit audience. Williams said he favors plans similar to those adopted by some states that require everyone to have health insurance: either through a workplace plan or through a plan consumers buy on their own, with help from state subsidies for those who can't afford it. A mandatory system would help bring down costs and end the problem of enrolling healthy applicants and rejecting those with prior medical problems because costs and risks would be spread over a larger group of people, Williams said.