Hartford, Conn.-based Aetna Chief Executive Mark Bertolini spoke out against the ACA exchanges only one day after Aetna and Louisville, Ky.-based Humana announced they were ending their merger agreement, according to the Washington Post.
Here are four notes:
1. Mr. Bertolini referred to the exchanges as in a "death spiral."
2. As per the deal's terms, Aetna will pay Humana a $1 billion breakup fee.
3. Humana announced it is completely exiting the ACA exchanges in 2018, saying the ACA risk pool did not sufficiently balance the number of healthy Americans purchasing coverage to sicker enrollees. Mr. Bertolini said, "That logic shows just how much the risk pool is deteriorating in the ACA and how poorly structured the funding mechanism and premium model is."
4. At this point, Aetna has not reached a consensus about its plans for 2018 ACA coverage.