Literally saving your life.
"Merger talks put a CEO’s diplomatic skills to test; Tufts’ Roosevelt draws the hard tasks" by Robert Weisman, Globe Staff / January 28, 2011
When President Obama blasted health insurers to rally support for a health care overhaul last year, it fell to James Roosevelt Jr. to defend his industry and chide the nation’s commander in chief, in a White House room named after Roosevelt’s grandfather.
Insurers are “a positive force for both quality and [reducing] cost,’’ Roosevelt said afterward. “So to be the designated villain was an uncomfortable place to be. Now politically, I understand why that happened. But that doesn’t help your emotional reaction.’’
The man chosen to run the health insurance giant that would arise out of this week’s proposed merger of Tufts Health Plan and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care is not often rattled. With his patrician roots and strong diplomatic skills, Roosevelt, 65, has frequently been tapped by political and business leaders to deliver an unwelcome message or fix a thorny problem....
Roosevelt is a health policy insider and behind-the-scenes force in Democratic circles. He is also a lawyer, grandson of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a guy who prefers diners and neighborhood restaurants over trendy bistros, and a devout Catholic who distributes Communion on Sundays at his church in Cambridge.
Since 2005, he has led Watertown-based Tufts, the state’s third-largest health insurer. A familiar figure in Boston, he is equally at home in Washington, D.C., where he was a top official in the Social Security Administration during the Clinton years....
He is popular among members of the health care industry establishment....
Just the guy you want running your plan.
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Related:
The state’s second- and third-largest health plans, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Tufts Health Plan, are set to tell their employees that they are exploring a merger that would reshape the region’s health insurance landscape.
Insurers say merger would cut health costs
The leaders of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Tufts Health Plan said joining forces will give them the scale to expand across New England and beyond at a time when sweeping changes in the health care industry demand larger and more competitive players.
Meanwhile, back in the business section: Insurers’ merger proposal raises thorny issues
