"Health care is the great equalizer," Bobby Jindal told attendees at BenefitsPRO Broker Expo, held last week in San Diego. "It doesn't matter if you are young or old, rich or poor. At some point, you're going to need health care."

Jindal, the former Louisiana Governor and 2016 presidential candidate, is something of a health care wonk. During his mercurial career, he's helped shape health care policy as Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals and later as principal adviser to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services under the George W. Bush administration. But he began his keynote address on a more personal level.

"My parents came to America almost 50 years ago," Jindal said, describing his family's immigration from Punjab, India. His mother was three months pregnant with Jindal when the family arrived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and when he was born, he was not covered under his parent's health care. "They said I was a preexisting condition."