Employers urged to push health reforms – Intel Speaks out

According to Craig Barrett from Intel, companies are not leveraging their buying power when it comes to negotiating insurance coverage, nor are they addressing the quality and access of care, just rather taking what is dished out for the dollar paid. BD

WASHINGTON -- Employers have been passive in helping to drive change in the health-care system, even as they fret about the soaring costs of providing health care, several industry and government officials said on Monday. "We've just been writing checks," Craig Barrett, chairman of Intel Corp, said at day-long meeting of government and industry officials on health-care reform sponsored by the U.S. Senate Finance Committee.

Peter Orszag, director of the Congressional Budget Office, said he was encouraged by Barrett's comments. The Intel chairman "recognizes that the employer community needs to step up on this issue of costs," Orszag said.