Aetna plans to remove itself from AHA
By Admin | September 12, 2016
In a letter obtained by the Huffington Post, Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini informs the Department of Justice that if the DOJ sues to block Aetna’s planned merger with Humana, then Aetna would begin to pull out of health insurance exchanges.
“Specifically, if the DOJ sues to enjoin the transaction, we will immediately take action to reduce our 2017 exchange footprint,” the July 5 letter said.
Two weeks later, the DOJ decided to sue to block the merger. It did the same with a proposed merger between health insurance companies Cigna and and Anthem. The reasoning is that competition in the marketplace will be reduced and consumers will suffer financially.
If Aetna follows through with what their letter says, then in 2017 they will remove themselves from 546 counties in 11 states, leaving it active in 242 counties in four states: Delaware, Iowa, Nebraska and Virginia.
For more, read “Aetna CEO To Justice Department: Block Our Deal And We'll Drop Out Of Obamacare” from npr.org.
