Ron Williams

I have seen the healthcare system from many angles, including as a patient.

I think reasonable people could agree that, at some point, there's enough income that someone should be expected to participate in the health-care system.

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 confuse insurance with our moral obligation to provide health-care services to people. And what we try to do is finance our moral obligation through the insurance system, which punishes the people who are fiscally responsible to buy insurance.

I am not a lawyer or an expert on the Constitution. But as the chairman and CEO of a major health plan, I had a ringside seat to the entire health-care reform process.

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.

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.

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

In health care, you really need a balance of people who need health care today, tomorrow, and in the future.

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