Massive national health insurance corporation Aetna just announced it is dropping its participation in Obamacare by 70% -- and it’s made no attempt to hide why: profit.
This cold-blooded move looks pretty bad given Aetna’s net worth of over $50 billion and CEO Mark Bertolini’s personal worth of $180 million. But Aetna’s pullout means that thousands of Americans will live in counties with just one or two insurers -- creating a for-profit monopoly.
The worst part of it is that many critics, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, are accusing Aetna of dropping Obamacare in retaliation for the justice department suing to block its mega-merger with fellow insurer Humana. This whole business -- which puts hundreds of thousands of Americans at risk of losing affordable insurance -- could just be a corporate temper tantrum.
Tell Aetna to reverse this brutal and spite-filled decision and keep its Obamacare patients.
Aetna’s flight is part of a larger, worrying trend of national insurers playing hardball with legislation that protects millions of America’s most vulnerable people. If you think these aren’t acts of political desperation to protect profit margins, why would Humana -- the corporation Aetna wants to takeover -- announce it’s pulling out from Obamacare the same day the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit to block the proposed merger?
We’ve been fighting to keep America’s for-profit health system fairer and more affordable for years. It’s the same reason 300,000 of us fought Pharma bro Martin Shkreli when he tried to boost the price of a vital cancer drug by 5,500% -- now he’s out on bail facing federal charges. 45,000 of us are already fighting the recent EpiPen price-gouge and we’ve been fighting to protect Britain’s NHS for years.
Join us as we demand Aetna puts patients before profit.
More information
NY Times. 16 August 2016.
USA Today. 16 August 2016.