ObamaCare Results

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2011/02/aetna-colorado

Aetna is responding to ObamaCare in Colorado, The Denver Business Journal reports:

A spokeswoman for Aetna confirmed Monday that the insurer will no longer sell new individual-market health insurance policies in Colorado and will terminate current policies held by state residents no later than July 31, 2012.

The change represents Aetna's third major recent pull-back on health-insurance offerings in Colorado. The Hartford, Conn.-based company announced in the second half of 2010 that it will also stop selling new small-group and child-only individual-market policies....

Insurers have complained that federal health care reform has made offering their product more expensive. Major changes have included the end of lifetime coverage limits, a ban on rejecting policies to children because of pre-existing conditions and a requirement that 80 percent of individual health policy premiums must go to health care rather than to the companies.

Aetna was the sixth largest insurer of individual health-care customers in Colorado, reporting 22,400 of them at the end of 2009, which is the most recent statistic available from the Colorado Division of Insurance. That represented 4.29 percent of the individual health care market in the state.

Look for the government to find some way to force Aetna to keep selling this insurance. If the government can mandate individuals to buy the insurance, why wouldn't the government also be able to force companies to sell it? I'm not saying such an approach is constitutional, but that concern doesn't seem to have stopped the Obama administration on health care so far. Remember, this is the same Aetna about which President Obama said in June 2009: "Aetna is a well-managed company and I am confident that your shareholders are going to do well." Aetna shares are now at about $33.50, down from about $58 in January 2008. The CEO, Ronald Williams, makes about $24 million a year.

Link via the Heritage Foundation Morning Bell.

by Ira Stoll  |  Feb 2, 2011 at 9:51 am Related Topics:  Compensation, Health Care, President Obama receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list