Real Life Real Faith Magazine Article Submission
Section: Business
Month: August-2016
Title:Healthcare Scare: Major Insurers Are Leaving Obama Care
Contributor: Theresa Tennyson, Being Broke Isn’t Cute Personal Financial Coaching
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), also known as theAffordable
Care Act (ACA) or Obama Care, has taken a couple of hard blows during this year. Several
major insurers, Aetna, Humana and UnitedHealthcareGroup have announced they are pulling
back or out of the program. All the companies cited lower than expected plan enrollment
numbers and losing money as some of the reasons for their withdrawal. Aetna claimed they lost
$430 million in the first quarter of 2016 alone, which is a lot of money. However, to put the loss
in perspective, Dean Baker of CNN noted the loss represents less than half of a percent of
Aetna’s $150 billion revenue for the same period. If that is still too many zeros for you, it is the
equivalent of someone making $10,000 in three months and complaining about losing $30.
In a related NPR story Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts (D) suggested on her
Facebook page Aetna may be using their withdrawal as a way to “influence” the Department of
Justice’s (DOJ) decision to approve a merger of Aetna and Humana. Humana, by the way, is
also one of the companies which announce their withdrawal from the ACA as well. In her post
she stated “Aetna may not like the Justice Department’s decision to challenge its merger, and it
has every right to fight that decision in court. But violating antitrust law is a legal question, not a
political one. The health of the American people should not be used as bargaining chips to force
the government to bend to one giant company’s will.”
As the battle rages on in the media and at the DOJ, my question, as always, is where does
that leave the rest of us? You know, those of us NOT banking $150 billion a quarter. Well, if
the big three keep to their word and pull out of Obama Care, the first noticeable effect would be
fewer healthcare plans to choose from. Again, those three, Aetna, Humana and