The withdrawal of Aetna <\/b><\/i>from several ACA <\/i><\/b>exchanges, citing financial losses, sounds like bad news for the ACA from a fundamental viewpoint – if insurance companies lose money on these policies, then perhaps ACA won’t work.<\/p>\n
Except there may be more to it than that, as Steve Benen on MaddowBlog <\/b><\/i>notes<\/a>, along with Kevin Drum and others:<\/p>\n What\u2019s less clear is why, exactly, Aetna made this decision. As Mother Jones<\/em>\u2019 Kevin Drum noted<\/a> this week, \u201cAetna did a lot of business on the Obamacare exchanges, and until recently claimed that it was a good investment. Now they\u2019ve suddenly changed their mind. Why? No one can say for sure, but the skeptical among us suspect it\u2019s payback. The Obama administration blocked their proposed merger with Humana, so now they\u2019re going to exit Obamacare. Nyah nyah nyah.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s fresh evidence Kevin may have been onto something. The Huffington Post<\/em>\u2019s Jonathan Cohn and Jeffrey Young published a rather striking report<\/a> overnight.<\/p>\n [Aetna\u2019s] move also was directly related to a Department of Justice decision to block the insurer\u2019s potentially lucrative merger with Humana, according to a letter from Aetna\u2019s CEO obtained by The Huffington Post. [\u2026]<\/p>\n I hope the government sits tight and let’s them throw away their “losses”, which may be profits. Perhaps impose a penalty – don’t permit re-entry to the exchanges they exit for a year or five.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The withdrawal of Aetna from several ACA exchanges, citing financial losses, sounds like bad news for the ACA from a fundamental viewpoint – if insurance companies lose money on these policies, then perhaps ACA won’t work. Except there may be more to it than that, as Steve Benen on MaddowBlog \u2026 Continue reading