Susan Kennedy is part of the five-member board overseeing Californias health benefits exchange, called Covered California. She was the keynote speaker at the Health Care Conference on Nov. 18, 2014.

SANTA ROSA Californias new health-benefits exchange greatly expanded coverage to millions of residents, but the costs of doing so may be difficult to contain, an overseer of the exchange said at the Business Journals Health Care Conference.

The keynote speaker at the Nov. 18 conference was Susan Kennedy, part of the five-member board for the exchange, called Covered California, created after the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly called ACA or Obamacare.

Ms. Kennedy has a reputation of getting things done. She was appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to the five-member Health Benefits Exchange, the body charged with designing the health insurance market for individuals and small businesses in California as part of national health reform. She served as the former chief of staff for then Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and also in this capacity and as cabinet secretary for former Gov. Gray Davis.

Im not a health care expert, just a person interested in policy formulation which should scare you a lot, she said, jokingly.

In 1999, Ms. Kennedy helped lead efforts in the Gray Davis administration to pass comprehensive health maintenance organization (HMO) reform in California. She also helped lead Gov. Schwarzeneggers historic health care reform initiative which passed the Assembly in 2007 but stalled in the state Senate.

She was among several conference speakers who offered candid views on reforms taking place in the industry, what HMOs are doing to achieve compliance with the ACA, and how insurance companies are handling the transformation. More than 200 attended the conference, held at the Hyatt Vineyard Creek Hotel in Santa Rosa.

Thanks to Covered California and Obamacare, some 3.5 million more state residents are now insured, she said.

What is my job on the exchange? she asked. We have a massive new business to launch plus the policies that go with it.

According to Ms. Kennedy, the U.S. has a more than 100-year history of attempting to bring health care to everyone.

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Health care challenge: More coverage often means higher cost