Two of the biggest web-based health insurance supermarkets in the United States will be getting new CEOs.
Covered California
Covered California, the organization that runs the Affordable Care Act public health insurance exchange in California, says Peter Lee will be leaving the organization in early 2022, after the end of the open enrollment period for individual major medical insurance that takes effect in 2022.
Lee has been serving as Covered California's executive director for 10 years and helped oversee its launch.
Lee started out as a program director for the National AIDS Network. He later worked as a lawyer for two years before becoming executive director of the Center for Health Care Rights in Los Angeles, and then CEO at the Pacific Business Group on Health. In addition, he spent two years in Washington at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Despite his roots outside of commercial health insurance, Lee focused on agent and broker relationships from the beginning. He repeatedly emphasized the importance of providing strong marketing support and compensation for producers.
Lee said strong marketing and producer support helps consumers, by encouraging younger, healthy people to buy coverage and by holding down the average amount of claims per enrollee.
Covered California now helps 1.6 million people in California use health coverage from private health insurers, and has helped cut the percentage of California residents who are uninsured to 7.7%, from 17% in 2013.