After Aetna's threat to pull back from the ACA marketplace if its merger with Humana was contested by the Justice Dept came to light, I noted that even in CEO Mark Bertolini's Springtime for the ACA aria last April, there was an equivocal note. That is, 'this market can work if Congress does its work':
we see this as a good investment, hoping that we have an administration and a Congress that will allow us to change the product like we change Medicare every year, and we change Medicaid every year.Why Bertolini might have thought "we can get to that point" in the foreseeable future, barring a Democratic blowout in the November elections, is anyone's guess. Notwithstanding, that "if" gave him at least rhetorical pivot space. When Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and allied senators challenged the Aetna pullback this week, Aetna neatly foreclosed on the "if":
But we haven't been able to touch this product because of the politics. But if we can get to that point, we believe we are in a very good place to make this a sustainable program (my emphasis).
