Aetna officials said the pullout was necessary because of Obamacare’s problems ― specifically, deep losses the insurer was incurring in the law’s health insurance exchanges. It is very likely that we would need to leave the public exchange business entirely and plan for additional business efficiencies should our deal ultimately be blocked. But just last month, in a letter to the Department of Justice, Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini said the two issues were closely linked. Of course, investors may pressure those companies to reconsider in response to the moves by Aetna, Humana and UnitedHealth Group. “We gained full visibility into our second quarter individual public exchange results,” Crawford wrote, “which ― similar to other participants on the public exchanges ― showed a significant deterioration.

Source: Huffington Post August 17, 2016 05:48 UTC