Michael Neidorff (Photo: Scott Eells/Bloomberg)
Executives at Centene Corp. are hoping the federal regulatory environment for health insurance will turn out to be reasonably stable for the next year or two.
Michael Neidorff, the St. Louis-based health insurer's chief executive officer, talked about the possibility of stability in federal health insurance policymaking Tuesday, during a conference call the company held to go over its first-quarter earnings with securities analysts.
David Wichmann, the CEO of UnitedHealth Group Inc., recently jolted investors by taking time during his company's first-quarter earnings call to denounce the Democrats Medicare for All proposals.
Neidorff — who runs a company with major managed Medicaid plan operations, as well as some Medicare and commercial insurance operations — gave analysts a different perspective on federal health policy efforts.
"At this time," Neidorff said, "we believe there is little appetite in Washington to revisit comprehensive health care reforms."
During the period leading up to the 2020 general elections, the big health policy efforts may focus on reducing prescription drug costs and using private-sector solutions to improve the quality of health care and lower the cost, Neidorff said.
Earnings
Centene is reporting $522 million in net income for the first quarter on $18 billion in revenue, compared with $345 million in net income on $13 billion in revenue for the first quarter of 2018.
The company ended the quarter providing or administering health coverage for 15 million people, up from 13 million people a year earlier.
Medicare plan enrollment increased to 393,900, from 343,400.
