Andrew Dreyfus On Controlling Health Care Costs

About three million people in Massachusetts — almost half the state — get their health insurance from the same company: Blue Cross Blue Shield. The company has been the subject of ire from health care providers, employers and, most notably of late, government.

The Patrick administration knocked down a set of double-digit premium increases that Blue Cross proposed earlier this year. Company officials protested, saying they're hardly the only party to blame for the skyrocketing cost of health care.

Enter Andrew Dreyfus. A veteran of the Dukakis administration, Dreyfus came to Blue Cross Blue Shield as a senior executive in 2001, and the work he did there served as the basis for the universal health care law adopted in Massachusetts, and ultimately, the nation.

He has also been the person at Blue Cross whose job it was to figure out how to halt the upward march of health care costs, and he has come up with some interesting ideas. In two weeks, Andrew Dreyfus takes over as the new CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, and he'll have a chance to implement all the big thinking he has been doing.

We spoke with Dreyfus on Tuesday.