RON WILLIAMS

We must find a way to cover those who are no longer healthy but need care.

My belief is that a positive culture works best because people want to meet or exceed expectations, not demands.

What we need are different types of insurance, some of which have copays, some that have coinsurance, but they need to offer a better first layer of coverage.

Championing quality improvement and value in the health care system is a passion of mine, and I'm able to bring about change through private equity activities.

Deliver bad news early and personally.

There is no question in my mind that the health care system has to work.

In my career, there have been many things I am fortunate enough to be proud of. Yet one of the things I feel most strongly about is the culture we created during the ten years I was at Aetna, and its enduring impact.

In my experience, it is the leader - the CEO - who plays the crucial role in creating and 'owning' an organization's culture, setting the tone, and executing on that consistently.

I remain deeply interested in the transformation of the American healthcare system to improve quality and contain costs.

As CEO of Aetna, I was a buyer of portfolio companies rather than a participant in the value creation process. From the end of the assembly line, what happened in manufacturing wasn't visible to me.

The basic premise of insurance is the pooling of funds from many to cover the costs of some. There are complicated methods for how to do this, but one fact remains consistent: For insurance to work well, people need to be in and stay in the insurance pool.

We are a wealthy country. We also are the global engine of innovation in health care, whether it's the pharmaceutical industry or the creation of medical devices.

I think if we're going to have a requirement that everyone have equal access to insurance, you really have to have a way to make certain that everyone is expected to participate.

It's difficult to compete against a player that's also refereeing the game.

Many who know me or have worked for me are aware of my penchant for strategic planning. I consider it a critical component of the success of any organization and believe in the value of planning for a company's needs over multiple time horizons, as well as reviews against that plan at regular intervals.

King v. Burwell pointed at but did not directly challenge the ACA's most essential weakness: Government-mandated participation in health insurance exchanges as a precondition to receiving a subsidy is not the best or most effective means of achieving its goal of expanded access to health coverage.

When I was a CEO, I thought I understood private equity. I didn't. And what I've learned since my retirement, and since becoming directly involved in the world of private equity, points the way to a new career path for thousands of talented senior executives - and a new engine for value creation.

As a CEO, I had significant exposure to private equity, enough that I had in no way bought into the media's caricature: rapacious privateers who destroy companies.

If an individual sticks up a bank and walks off with $25,000, there are consequences. If someone who really could have had an insurance policy consumes $25,000 worth of health care, everyone else pays for that.

For insurance solvency, ongoing plan participation is vital.

There are several problems with the ACA's reliance on means-based inclusion criteria and mandatory participation in exchanges - the complexity of the exchange mechanism, and the potential for income-based subsidies to become a disincentive to earn if insurance rates escalate for those beyond the income threshold.

Every institution is perfectly capable of forgetting what it has learned in three years.

I think the U.S. is conflicted. When it comes to our own health care, we all want the best - access to the latest and most important technology. At the same time, health care is typically purchased in an institutional setting. So we purchase it in the aggregate, but we consume it as individuals.

We have a moral obligation to get healthcare to people who need it.

The ACA - popularly known as 'Obamacare' - has been an important step forward toward an admirable goal: providing access to health insurance for all Americans. But like many reforms generated by the political process, the ACA is problematic.