Aetna’s Growth
Here is a funny news item. Aetna Inc. reported earnings that beat analysts’ expectations. Yes, somehow they beat expectations. Their net income dropped sharply due to restructuring costs though their revenue…….rose. Yup, the insurers keep winning. And yet, they continue to whine and complain:
- Chief Executive Mark T. Bertolini said in an interview that the insurer wouldn’t expand its presence in the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges for 2018 and was re-evaluating its current footprint for next year.
- The company said it was still deciding whether to appeal the antitrust ruling against the Humana merger or terminate the deal, which is currently slated to expire on Feb. 15.
- Aetna said its losses on the ACA plans amounted to $450 million for the full year 2016, about $100 million more than it previously projected.
Remember, in regards to the third bullet point, President Obama and his risk corridor concept means we will have to pay this money back to the Aetna. Even better, Obamacare allowed them to raise their rates for everyone not on the exchange as well. So what does this all mean? Well, even though they lost $450 on the plans (and our taxes have to pay back) their revenue rose 4.5% to $15.7 billion. Clearly, Aetna continues to find a way to make money hand over fist.
I haven’t lost any sleep over the insurance companies since they and their executives are making out like bandits. Guess the beef is they only got $3 mil this year instead of $4 mil last year.
There was another article was that essentially Aetna was holding the government hostage. If the government did not approve their merger (they didn’t), then they would pull out of the insurance pools and use the excuse of not enough money. Not widely published but there was documentations to prove this. So as usual the media story that is put out there is often not deep enough to really know the games that are being played, ignoring the needs of patients and doctors. Governments and corporations are often in this hidden agenda stuff that the media are just to lazy to dig up and reveal the truth…