On the other hand, " if the DOJ sues to enjoin the transaction, we will immediately take action to reduce our 2017 exchange footprint." UPDATE: Adding further fuel to the retribution theory, swing-state Pennsylvania is one of the markets that Aetna has abandoned, claiming it can't make a profit. Yet by its own numbers, it DOES make a profit in Pennsylvania.
I think it’s probable that both stories have some degree of truth. While Aetna’s decision may indeed have been motivated in part by anger at the Justice Department, there’s also no denying that the financial issues raised by the company are real, and that other large insurers report a similar experience.
So what now? In a functional system, the natural response to problems like this would be to fix the problems. Human beings have done this kind of thing — see problem, fix problem — for millions of years, and we are perfectly capable of doing it this time too.
So if Congress can’t fix it, I guess we need a new Congress.
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