The Patriot Post® · Aetna to Completely Exit ObamaCare

Health insurance giant Aetna announced on Wednesday that it would be exiting all ObamaCare exchanges by 2018. The company cited large and continued financial losses as the primary reason for its exit. Aetna spokesman T. J. Crawford stated, “Our individual commercial products lost nearly $700 million between 2014 and 2016, and are projected to lose more than $200 million in 2017 despite a significant reduction in membership.” No mention was made of concerns over the future of ObamaCare, which had been cited a week ago when Aetna announced that it was leaving exchanges in Virginia and Iowa.

Crawford blamed the insurer’s financial loses on structuring issues within the exchanges which “led to co-op failures and carrier exits, and subsequent risk pool reduction.” Some have suggested that the Obama administration’s challenge of — and eventual block of — Aetna’s planned merger with Humana precipitated a reduction in its participation in the exchanges. And while this may have eventually played into Aetna’s decision, the reality is the exchanges have simply been bad for business.

The Daily Signal reports, “In 2013, before Obamacare’s insurance provisions were enforced, there were 395 insurers selling plans in the individual markets throughout the United States. By 2017, there were just 218 insurers selling plans in the Obamacare exchanges, a drop of 45 percent.”

Aetna’s exit is yet another example of this pattern of the capitalism-killing effect of the “Affordable” Care Act, which was never a sustainable means of providing health care. It appears that ObamaCare is on life support and is rapidly collapsing. And now many who bought into Barack Obama’s promise of affordable health care have been met with higher costs, fewer options and poor coverage.

(Edited.)