Quick Q&A: Jeremy Gaskill on the uninsured and pressure on providers

Jeremy Gaskill was named president of Geisinger Health Plan in February 2026 after more than two decades in positions of increasing responsibility at Humana. Geisinger Health Plan covers approximately 550,000 people in Pennsylvania and is part of Geisinger Health, a nonprofit health system headquartered in Danville, in the northcentral part of the state, with a reputation for value-based care. In moving to a nonprofit health plan owned by a health system, Gaskill found familiar problems and far fewer resources for solving them.

Gaskill says healthcare has always been a challenging business in which to succeed. In the commercial market, that difficulty is why few new entrants come in, he said, and in Medicare Advantage and Medicaid, plans need to manage with discipline. "Now they're big dollars, but the margins as a percentage are very, very slim," Gaskill said. The environment continues to be turbulent and to create headwinds that disciplined organizations need to manage through, he said.

The uninsured are a particular concern. When more people lack coverage, the bad debt carried by providers increases, Gaskill said, and providers must then work to recover dollars that are due to them, much of which gets written off in some environments. As a payer partner to Geisinger's clinical organization and to its network providers, the plan is thinking through how to support them and make sure they are paid what they are owed.

"I have sleepless nights about it," Gaskill said of the possibility that the uninsured pool could grow.