The CEO of Aetna warned that Obamacare is continuing to deteriorate in midst of its &#8220;death spiral.&#8221;
At the Future of Healthcare event put on by the Wall Street Journal, Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/obamacare-market-death-spiral-aetna-mark-bertolini-235041">said</a> that Obamacare was only &#8220;getting worse&#8221; because there weren&#8217;t enough young, healthy enrollees to pay for the sick people covered by the Obamacare exchanges. Bertolini said it was due to &#8220;how poorly structured the funding mechanism and premium model is,&#8221; as premiums keep increasing with the death spiral, causing less people to sign up, and thus resulting in even higher premiums.
&#8220;I think you will see a lot more withdrawals this year of plans,&#8221; Bertolini <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/02/15/aetna-ceo-says-obamacare-is-in-a-death-spiral/?utm_term=.5df97cbe1e25">said</a>.
On Wednesday, Humana&#8211;which came to a mutual agreement with Aetna not to merge&#8211;<a href="http://hotair.com/archives/2017/02/14/humana-announces-it-is-dropping-out-of-obamacare-in-2018/">announced</a> that it was withdrawing from Obamacare altogether. In <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/8553/5-facts-show-obamacare-collapsing-aaron-bandler">2016</a>, UnitedHealth also announced that they would be pulling out of the Obamacare exchanges, and Aetna itself said they would only stay in four Obamacare exchanges.
Bertolini stated at the event that the company has not decided if it will remain in these Obamacare exchanges.
&#8220;There isn&#8217;t any risk sharing going on in Nebraska,&#8221; Bertolini said, pointing to the fact that Aetna was the only insurer left in that exchange. &#8220;It will cost us a lot of money.&#8221;
Bertolini suggested that the Republicans&#8217; Obamacare replacement proposal feature health savings account and high-risk pools.
The Republicans would be wise to take Bertolini&#8217;s advice and run with his warnings about Obamacare&#8217;s future. The problem is that <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/news/13197/report-no-replacing-obamacare-until-next-year-aaron-bandler">indications</a> point to Obamacare&#8217;s repeal and replacement not happening until at least next year. Meanwhile, Obamacare will only continue to worsen.
Follow Aaron Bandler on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/bandlersbanter">@bandlersbanter</a>.

Aetna CEO Warns That Obamacare Is In A “Death Spiral”

Aetna

Obamacare

On Tuesday the health insurance company Humana announced it would be the first major health insurer to quit the ObamaCare exchanges, asserting it would be through by 2018.
<a href="http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/319538-humana-to-drop-out-of-obamacare-marketplace-at-end-of-2017">The Hill</a> reported that the company admitted it was losing money because the number of people who were ill outweighed the number of healthy people. After the Department Of Justice sued to block its proposed deal with Aetna last summer, Humana cut back its presence in 19 states to 11, and a huge reduction from 1,351 counties to 156 counties. It had also raised its premiums, to no avail. The company stated:
<blockquote>
All of these actions were taken with the expectation that the company&#8217;s Individual Commercial business would stabilize to the point where the company could continue to participate in the program. However, based on its initial analysis of data associated with the company&#8217;s healthcare exchange membership following the 2017 open enrollment period, Humana is seeing further signs of an unbalanced risk pool. Therefore, the company has decided that it cannot continue to offer this coverage for 2018. Through the remainder of 2017, Humana remains committed to serving its current members across 11 states where it offers Individual Commercial products. And, as it has done in the past, Humana will work closely with its state partners as it navigates this process.
</blockquote>
Humana is reportedly skeptical that Republicans will &#8220;repeal and replace&#8221; ObamaCare in the near future. Humana is the only exchange insurer available in Tennessee, and one of two in numerous counties in Mississippi and Georgia.
<blockquote>
&#8220;Based on its initial analysis of data associated with the company&#8217;s healthcare exchange membership following the 2017 open enrollment period, Humana is seeing further signs of an unbalanced risk pool.&#8221;
Humana
</blockquote>
Earlier in the day, Aetna and Humana jettisoned their planned $34 billion merger agreement; a federal court judge blocked the deal on antitrust grounds last month.
Meanwhile, other insurers such as Anthem and Centene think Obamacare will gain strength this year; they hope the GOP will short up risk pools and limit special enrollment periods, according to <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/brucejapsen/2017/02/14/humana-will-leave-obamacare-in-2018-citing-unstable-risk-pools/#82840cf4df46">Forbes</a>.

MAJOR Health Insurer Dumps Obamacare Entirely

Barack Obama

Health Care

Humana

Obamacare is savaging the consumer, as insurance companies roll back their efforts in many states, leaving a single insurance company or no insurance company at all from which a consumer can choose.
The latest example is the decision by Aetna to stop offering insurance around the country except for four states: Delaware, Iowa, Nebraska and Virginia. The company will leave Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Texas, according to <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-16/aetna-quits-most-obamacare-markets-joining-other-major-insurers">Bloomberg</a>.
According to <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2016/08/16/aetna-obamacare-exchanges-affordable-care-act/88819028/">USA Today</a>, Aetna said that in 2017 its exit would affect 68.9% of the counties where it offered plans in 2016. Aetna had a pre-tax loss of $200 million on its individual health care plans in the second quarter of 2016, and stated that the reason for the loss was the lack of healthy plan members using their plans as opposed to the vast number of users who depended on the plan to pay for their illnesses. Aetna has roughly 1.1 million individual enrollees, roughly 838,000 of whom purchased their coverage on the Obamacare exchanges.
That has been the concern about Obamacare all along, that it was infeasible because it depended on young healthy subscribers to mitigate the costs of unhealthy clients.
Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini said, &#8220;As a strong supporter of public exchanges as a means to meet the needs of the uninsured, we regret having to make this decision. We will continue to evaluate our participation in individual public exchanges while gaining additional insight from the counties where we will maintain our presence, and may expand our footprint in the future should there be meaningful exchange-related policy improvements.&#8221;
Kevin Counihan, CEO of the government&#8217;s Marketplace exchanges, protested that Obamacare is developing an &#8220;improving risk pool,” adding, &#8220;Aetna’s decision to alter its Marketplace participation does not change the fundamental fact that the Health Insurance Marketplace will continue to bring quality coverage to millions of Americans next year and every year after that. It’s no surprise that companies are adapting at different rates to a market where they compete for business on cost and quality rather than by denying coverage to people with preexisting conditions.&#8221;
<blockquote>The company will leave Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Texas,</blockquote>
Aetna was not the only company to suffer heavy losses and consider pulling out of various states; UnitedHealth Group Inc. has said it expects to lose $650 million this year, and decided to exit Arkansas, Georgia and Michigan in 2017. Humana Inc., which Aetna has agreed to buy for $37 billion, has <a href="http://www.fiercehealthcare.com/payer/humana-mulls-exit-from-some-aca-marketplaces">considered</a> exiting exchanges as well.
Aetna has said it will buy Humana Inc. for $37 billion, but the U.S. Justice Department sued to block the effort, ironically claiming the combination would harm competition. UnitedHealth Group Inc. has <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/04/20/deserting-obamacare-unitedhealth-nations-largest-health-insurer-bolts-fears-huge-losses.html">said</a> it expects to lose $650 million this year, and decided to exit Arkansas, Georgia and Michigan in 2017.
In one Arizona county, Pinal County in Arizona, Aetna’s exit will leave the county at risk of having no insurers offering exchange plans in 2017, <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/aetna-to-drop-some-affordable-care-act-markets-1471311737">The Wall Street Journal</a> reports. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona said in June that it would exit Pinal County and Maricopa County. The Journal reports that the five largest insurance companies expect to lose money this year.

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Aetna

Aetna CEO Warns That Obamacare Is In A “Death Spiral”

MAJOR Health Insurer Dumps Obamacare Entirely

Aetna Pulls Out Of Collapsing Obamacare