Obamacare does little to convince people to stay healthy, Toby Cosgrove, president and chief executive officer of the Cleveland Clinic, said.
In an interview with Axios, Cosgrove offered is thoughts on the hits and misses of the Affordable Care Act.
He said the law "really did not do very much" to push people to stay healthy — in part because it is not political popular to tax cigarettes and the powerful sugar lobby fights efforts to reduce obesity, according to the website.
"I think that was one of the misses, but I understand why it happened," he said. "But I think that's one of those things you could correct going forward."
And he noted 22 million people gained coverage from Obamacare.
Cosgrove had been under consideration to head the Veterans Affairs under President Donald Trump, but later notified officials he was withdrawing from consideration.
"My initial discussion with them was, were they willing to make that kind of a major change, and if they were going to make that major change, was it feasible to make it happen?" Cosgrove told Axios.
He said he backed out to honor commitments to the Cleveland Clinic.
"I had to weigh that against my commitments to the Cleveland Clinic and the things that I'd started here that I needed to see through."
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported it was the second time Cosgrove, a heart surgeon, had decided to stay in his current job after such discussions. The newspaper said he turned down an offer by former President Barack Obama in 2014.
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