Truth comes out: Real reason why companies pulled out of Obamacare

[Zan15]

I am going to gander this is the first of such revelations we are going to hear about.

Then again knowing the history of the CEO Bertolini when he used to work at the company i worked for, this shocks no one. there is a reason why his prior employers told him he would never be CEO and he left.... he was shady as fuck.

Can't wait to see what comes out of the CIGNA denied merger.

More manipulations of ACA not because it was a bad program but because of other reasons.
Guess we can expect much more manipulations of the Pro-Corporate Trump Administration. Corporations have already shown they are willing to tell and promise him anything, even if such things were promised before or will never happen.


I would hope this would outrage people and push us toward single payer or Medicare for all, but i am sure it won't. Hating Obamacare for the sake of hating it just seems to be the norm now.



http://www.latimes.com/business/hilt...123-story.html

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. Aetna threatened federal officials with the pullout before the lawsuit was filed, and followed through on its threat once it was filed. Bates made the observations in the course of a ruling he issued Monday blocking the merger.

Aetna executives had moved heaven and earth to conceal their decision-making process from the court, in part by discussing the matter on the phone rather than in emails, and by shielding what did get put in writing with the cloak of attorney-client privilege, a practice Bates found came close to “malfeasance.”


Aetna tried to leverage its participation in the exchanges for favorable treatment from DOJ regarding the proposed merger.


The judge’s conclusions about Aetna’s real reasons for pulling out of Obamacare — as opposed to the rationalization the company made in public — are crucial for the debate over the fate of the Affordable Care Act. That’s because the company’s withdrawal has been exploited by Republicans to justify repealing the act. Just last week, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) cited Aetna’s action on the “Charlie Rose” show, saying that it proved how shaky the exchanges were.



Bates found that this rationalization was largely untrue.
In fact, he noted, Aetna pulled out of some states and counties that were actually profitable to make a point in its lawsuit defense — and then misled the public about its motivations.
Bates’ analysis relies in part on a “smoking gun” letter to the Justice Department in which Chief Executive Mark Bertolini explicitly ties Aetna’s participation in Obamacare to the DOJ’s actions on the merger, which we reported in August. But it goes much further.


he wrote, Aetna’s decision to pull out of the exchange business in Florida was “so far outside of normal business practice” that it perplexed the company’s top executive in Florida, who was not in the decision loop.

“I just can’t make sense out of the Florida dec[ision],” the executive, Christopher Ciano, wrote to Jonathan Mayhew, the head of Aetna’s national exchange business. “Based on the latest run rate data . . . we are making money from the on-exchange business. Was Florida’s performance ever debated?” Mayhew told him to discuss the matter by phone, not email, “to avoid leaving a paper trail,” Bates found


He observed that the failings in the marketplace existed before Aetna decided to withdraw, but that as late as July 19, the company was still planning to expand its footprint to as many as 20 states. In April, top executives had told investors that Aetna had a “solid cost structure” in Florida and Georgia, two states it dropped.

[Edge-]

And this is why we need to move to a single payer system already.

[xChurch]

Obamacare is going to be the gift that keeps on giving. Anyone who thought this would go away quickly is in for quite a shock. Gonna needs lots of popcorn.

[Paranoid Android]

And this is why we need to move to a single payer system already.

Remember its profit first. Then if you live. Meh.

Our great American healthcare system.

[Elegiac]

And this is why we need to move to a single payer system already.

On the bright side, if the Republicans cause the private insurance market to collapse then there won't be any 'private centric' alternative.

[Daelak]

On the bright side, if the Republicans cause the private insurance market to collapse then there won't be any 'private centric' alternative.

They would immediately bail out the insurance companies and privatize medicare in a healthcare omnibus bill.

[Elegiac]

They would immediately bail out the insurance companies and privatize medicare in a healthcare omnibus bill.

That would eradicate Republican support in the midwest and possibly lead to a 2010 style partisan reversal.

[Daelak]

That would eradicate Republican support in the midwest and possibly lead to a 2010 style partisan reversal.

Hopefully, a reversal of that size would only be beneficial to state and federal politics.

[Elegiac]

Hopefully, a reversal of that size would only be beneficial to state and federal politics.

What would really seal the deal is if the Democrats started pushing heavily for policies that are actually popular.

Like, for example, campaign finance reform.

[Dragoncurry]

Remember its profit first. Then if you live. Meh.

Our great American healthcare system.

I certainly hope you didn't decide to come to America for the free healthcare.*

[Daelak]

What would really seal the deal is if the Democrats started pushing heavily for policies that are actually popular.

Like, for example, campaign finance reform.

That and a massive public investment in new technologies and businesses relevant to the 21st century for rural whites in the rust belt.

[jimboa24]

And this is why we need to move to a single payer system already.

Yes, so the entire nation can have VA-quality healthcare, right?

That and a massive public investment in new technologies and businesses relevant to the 21st century for rural whites in the rust belt.

Democrats can't be seen as doing anything that would benefit white people. That would be racist. They're the party of the minority coalition, and anything that would even marginally benefit white cis males is something they must shut down at all costs.

[Daelak]

Yes, so the entire nation can have VA-quality healthcare, right?



Democrats can't be seen as doing anything that would benefit white people. That would be racist. They're the party of the minority coalition, and anything that would even marginally benefit white cis males is something they must shut down at all costs.

More delusional ramblings from the cohort of people that voted in Trump. Do the forum a favor and tell us how becoming more isolated from global affairs benefits you?

[Independent voter]

I hope they Slap a 10 billion dollar fine on Aetna for doing this.

My insurance is with Aetna, come next enrollment period I'll make damn sure I don't sign with them again.

People's lives were a stake and Aetna toyed with them.

[Elegiac]

Yes, so the entire nation can have VA-quality healthcare, right?

Single-payer is not public healthcare.

Democrats can't be seen as doing anything that would benefit white people. That would be racist. They're the party of the minority coalition, and anything that would even marginally benefit white cis males is something they must shut down at all costs.

Which is why the Democrat platform was geared strongly towards revitalizing midwestern communities and job creation. Right.

[Theinquisition]

And this is why we need to move to a single payer system already.

*looks at VA*

Yeah, great idea.

[Edge-]

*looks at VA*

Yeah, great idea.

Yes, that's the only government run health care system.

The only one.

Nobody is arguing that it isn't broken, but saying that because the VA is a shitshow that single payer health care isn't possible is silly. We already have a functional medicare system, and almost every other major Western power has gotten it work out pretty well.

Are you saying the US is inferior to those countries?

[jimboa24]

More delusional ramblings from the cohort of people that voted in Trump. Do the forum a favor and tell us how becoming more isolated from global affairs benefits you?

More salt from radical liberal closet communists. Since when did I argue that being isolated from global affairs is a good thing?

One can invest in one's own economy instead of other nation's without becoming isolated in global affairs. Economic globalization, however, has severely fucked over the American middle class. And before you go on a fucking rant about the ultra rich doing it, the rich are going to do what earns them money. Why should we make it economically more beneficial to move business overseas, instead of heavily penalizing businesses that outsource and reward businesses that keep their workforce in the United States?

[Elegiac]

*looks at VA*

Yeah, great idea.

You mean the VA which, despite being chronically underfunded, has very high approval from the people that use it?

And once again, the VA is not single payer healthcare.

[zenkai]

On the bright side, if the Democrats cause the private insurance market to collapse then there won't be any 'private centric' alternative.

fixed it for you