Aetna CEO: “Doing Nothing, In the Current Model of Capitalism, Will Destroy Capitalism” -- FORTUNE

Yesterday's report by the Wall Street Journal that CVS Health was "in talks" to buy health insurer Aetna sent ripples through much of the healthcare realm. The combination of CVS Health, the seventh-biggest company in the U.S. by revenue, with Aetna (No. 43 on the Fortune 500) would, if it were to go through, create a corporate behemoth with $240 billion in annual revenue across a wide swath of the healthcare continuum, from retail pharmacy and benefit management to insurance. ....
http://fortune.com/2017/10/27/cvs-aetna-mark-bertolini-capitalism/

U.S. judge finds that Aetna misled the public about its reasons for quitting Obamacare

Aetna claimed this summer that it was pulling out of all but four of the 15 states where it was providing Obamacare individual insurance because of a business decision — it was simply losing too much money on the Obamacare exchanges.

Now a federal judge has ruled that that was a rank falsehood. In fact, says Judge John D. Bates, Aetna made its decision at least partially in response to a federal antitrust lawsuit blocking its proposed $37-billion merger with Humana....
http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-aetna-obamacare-20170123-story.html

Cartoon: Modern medical marvels

If there was any doubt that Martin Shkreli represents the rest of the for-profit healthcare industry, recent headlines removed it. Mylan’s gouging of Epi-Pens, and Aetna sulking away from Obamacare markets because they weren’t profitable enough are making quite the case for putting a public option into the Affordable Care Act.

The public option was originally in there, but removed to placate conservatives, who spent the past 6 years trying to repeal it anyway. Unless the House changes hands in November, a public insurance plan will remain a pipe dream and healthcare costs will keep going up. That’s good news if you happen to be a well-compensated healthcare CEO.

I’m not even going to pretend that single-payer will ever happen. Too much money’s at stake, and no number of lives can top that....
http://www.dailykos.com/stories/1564627

Robert Reich: A single-payer health care system is inevitable

The best argument for a single-payer health plan is the recent decision by giant health insurer Aetna to bail out next year from 11 of the 15 states where it sells Obamacare plans.

Aetna’s decision follows similar moves by UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest health insurer, and by Humana, another one of the giants. All claim they’re not making enough money because too many people with serious health problems are using the Obamacare exchanges and not enough healthy people are signing up.

The problem isn’t Obamacare per se. It lies in the structure of private markets for health insurance — which creates powerful incentives to avoid sick people and attract healthy ones. Obamacare is just making this structural problem more obvious. In a nutshell, the more sick people and the fewer healthy people a private for-profit insurer attracts, the less competitive that insurer becomes relative to other insurers that don’t attract as high a percentage of the sick but a higher percentage of the healthy. Eventually, insurers that take in too many sick and too few healthy people are driven out of business....
http://www.salon.com/2016/08/25/robert-reich-a-single-payer-health-care-system-is-inevitable_partner/

The case for a single-payer health plan: Aetna shows how insurers are avoiding the sick

The best argument for a single-payer health plan is the recent decision by giant health insurer Aetna to bail out next year from 11 of the 15 states where it sells Obamacare plans.

Aetna’s decision follows similar moves by UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest insurer, and Humana, one of the other giants. All claim they’re not making enough money because too many people with serious health problems are using the Obamacare exchanges, and not enough healthy people are signing up.

The problem isn’t Obamacare per se. It’s in the structure of private markets for health insurance — which creates powerful incentives to avoid sick people and attract healthy ones. Obamacare is just making the structural problem more obvious....
http://www.salon.com/2016/08/20/the-case-for-a-single-payer-health-plan-aetna-shows-how-insurers-are-avoiding-the-sick_partner/

The Aetna-Humana merger was the reason Aetna bailed on Obamacare - Business Insider

On Monday night, news broke that one of the five largest insurers in the US, Aetna, was leaving 70% of the counties in which it offers insurance through the Affordable Care Act's public healthcare exchanges.

The move was seen as a huge blow to the future of the act, making Aetna the third large insurer, after United Healthcare and Humana, to significantly reduce its Obamacare business. Aetna cited the large losses that the company has incurred from the exchange business — $200 million in the second quarter alone — when explaining its decision to roll back its business.

These statements, however, appeared to be a dramatic turnaround from the company's first-quarter earnings call in April, when CEO Mark Bertolini said the firm planned to stay in the exchanges and that the company was "in a very good place to make this a sustainable program."

Now, however, it appears a large reason for the shift in tone was the Department of Justice's lawsuit to block Aetna's merger with rival Humana....
http://www.businessinsider.com/aetna-humana-merger-reason-for-leaving-obamacare-2016-8

Aetna Shows Exactly Why We Need Single Payer Insurance

The best argument for a single-payer health plan is the recent decision by giant health insurer Aetna to bail out next year from 11 of the 15 states where it sells Obamacare plans.

Aetna’s decision follows similar moves by UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest insurer, and Humana, one of the other giants. All claim they’re not making enough money because too many people with serious health problems are using the Obamacare exchanges, and not enough healthy people are signing up.

The problem isn’t Obamacare per se. It’s in the structure of private markets for health insurance – which creates powerful incentives to avoid sick people and attract healthy ones. Obamacare is just making the structural problem more obvious....
http://www.alternet.org/economy/aetna-opts-out-affordable-care-act