Aetna Drops Out of Health Insurance Exchange in Home State

We repeatedly warn people to judge government programs by actual impacts, not by stated intentions or the rhetoric that's dreamed up to sell the beast.  This is an especially important caution for the Obama administration which is expert in deploying programs that have the opposite of the advertised impact. The poster child for this cautionary note is Obamacare.

Looking at what is happening in Connecticut.  Aetna, the Hartford based insurer, is dropping individual insurance coverage in its home state.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- The Hartford-based Aetna Life Insurance Co. has informed state insurance officials that it has withdrawn from Connecticut's health insurance exchange, which is poised to begin open enrollment this fall. 

In a letter to the state's Insurance Department, released Monday, the insurer said it "reluctantly" decided to withdraw from the insurance marketplace for 2014."Please be assured this is not a step taken lightly, and was made as part of national review of our Exchange strategy," wrote Aetna's senior actuary, Bruce Campbell. 

Correspondence posted on the Insurance Department's website shows Aetna and the agency disagreed over how Aetna had calculated its proposed rates for the insurance marketplace.

When Barack Obama gave his nationally televised healthcare address to a joint session of Congress in September 2009, here is what he said.

 [T]his plan will finally offer you quality, affordable choices. (Applause.) If you lose your job or you change your job, you'll be able to get coverage. If you strike out on your own and start a small business, you'll be able to get coverage. We'll do this by creating a new insurance exchange -- a marketplace where individuals and small businesses will be able to shop for health insurance at competitive prices. Insurance companies will have an incentive to participate in this exchange because it lets them compete for millions of new customers. As one big group, these customers will have greater leverage to bargain with the insurance companies for better prices and quality coverage.

Obama speechified that the healthcare exchanges were set up so insurance companies would compete for your business.  You could bargain!  But what Obamacare actually is doing is quite different.  It eliminates options and takes away consumer choice.  It sets up requirements and regulations that push out suppliers and restrict competition, quite the opposite of Obama's misleading and distorted rhetoric.  I don't know to what degree Obama's description was foolish and how much of it was dishonest. Either way, the result is the same.  There aren't real choices.  There won't be real competition.  And there won't be low and competitive prices.  Good luck to all.  Aetna, too bad you left us.