How The American HLTHCARE Industry Blackmails our Federal Gov. to get their merger!
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How The American HLTHCARE Industry Blackmails our Federal Gov. to get their merger!
Love big greedy corporations, squeezing the lesser able to pay humanity in America - those that need these options and viable plans; but the ability to control the vested interest and keep the playing field as wide open as possible - the MEGA BIG DOGS want to keep merging into a smaller option controlling group!Aetna told DOJ it would drop Obamacare if Humana merger is blocked
by Tami Luhby August 17, 2016: 11:30 AM ET
VIDEO > http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2016/07/21/doj-sues-healthcare-mergers.cnnmoney/Aetna said this week that it was curtailing its presence on the Obamacare exchanges to stem mounting financial losses.
Last month, the company told the Department of Justice that it would probably be forced to withdraw from Obamacare altogether if the agency blocks its pending merger with Humana (HUM) over antitrust concerns.
"[W]e believe it is very likely that we would need to leave the public exchange business entirely and plan for additional business efficiencies should our deal ultimately be blocked," Aetna (AET) CEO Mark Bertolini wrote in a July 5 letter.
The letter was obtained by the Huffington Post following a Freedom of Information Act request. Aetna's announcement that it would withdraw from 11 of 15 states next year amid $430 million in losses heightened concerns about Obamacare's financial viability. UnitedHealthcare (UNH) and Humana are also minimizing their presence on the exchanges after recording big losses.
But the pullbacks also come as two pairs of major insurers are planning to merge. Anthem (ANTX) has offered $54 billion to acquire Cigna (CI), while Aetna would pay $37 billion to take over Humana.
Last month, the Justice Department filed suit against the companies to block their mergers. Some experts thought it strange that Aetna, which had voiced support and optimism about Obamacare earlier this year, suddenly canceled its plans to expand into more states and review its participation in its current markets.
Soon after the Justice Department filed its suit, Anthem also tied its continued participation on the exchanges to its merger. "As shared with the DOJ, our acquisition of Cigna will help stabilize pricing in this volatile market, enabling Anthem to continue its commitment to the public exchanges, and provide the opportunity to expand our participation to nine additional states, where neither Anthem nor Cigna currently participate," Anthem CEO Joseph Swedish said last month.
Aetna's Bertolini, meanwhile, wrote the letter in response to the Justice Department's query into what the likely consequences would be if it blocked the merger. He noted that "the acquisition of Humana puts Aetna in a significantly better position to continue and expand its support."
In the letter to DOJ, Bertolini said Aetna has been operating in the exchanges at a "substantial loss" and said it would be "some time before we recoup our investment."
Acquiring Humana will give it deeper reserves to weather the losses, he said.
"Our ability to withstand these losses is dependent on our achieving anticipated synergies in the Humana acquisition," he wrote. "Our analysis to date makes clear that if the deal were challenged and/or blocked we would need to take immediate actions to mitigate public exchange and ACA small group losses."
The Department of Health & Human Services declined to comment on the letter.
An Aetna spokesman told CNNMoney Wednesday that the company wrote the letter in response to a Justice Department request. Since then, Aetna found that its performance on the exchanges in the second quarter "showed a significant deterioration."
"That deterioration, and not the DOJ challenge to our Humana transaction, is ultimately what drove us to announce the narrowing of our public exchange presence for the 2017 plan year," said Aetna spokesman TJ Crawford.
http://money.cnn.com/2016/08/17/news/economy/aetna-humana-merger/index.html
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Re: How The American HLTHCARE Industry Blackmails our Federal Gov. to get their merger!
Everyone knows--it is a well-studied phenomenon--that the free-market system is unstable precisely because it is uncertain. The uncertainty is supposed to create the tension that drives prices down and efficiency up. In practice, it motivates actors to seek monopoly, which is a kind of 'managed' economic enclave, not unlike socialism, save that control ends up in private hands.
Restraint of trade laws were designed to combat monopolistic practices. With the Republicans controlling government for the past 16-years we haven't seen a lot of DOJ actions to enforce the Clayton Act, the Sherman Antitrust Act and the FTC Act lately. As a consequence, we have see all wealth go to the top 1%, leaving only the rubbish for the middle and poorer classes.
Flushed with the new normal of the wealthy having their way, Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini writes in his July 5th letter regarding the pending proposed merger of AETNA and HUMANA:
In other words, if we can't have unfettered control of the rules, we'll take our ball and bat and go home. Then y'all will be sorry! Or more succinctly, we own the game (ball and bat) and we want to own the rules.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA, or 'Obamacare') was enacted, in lieu of socialized medicine, to operate through the market, imposing controls on certain practices to assure that market serves the consumers and not exclusively the providers, or profit seekers. The ACA has received a lot of antagonism from Republicans (62 votes to repeal, so far), however which has been kept in check by the pure popularity and investment in it. by the population. But so far the tensions have been kept within the confines of the ACA.
The ACA was never meant to repeal any of the restraint of trade laws. But Mr. Bertolini is using his leverage within the ACA to combat the DOJ on the antitrust matter, in an effort to accomplish precisely that. His position is: the shackles that the ACA places upon us is not enough for us to leave that market, but if you oppose our monopolistic practices, it will be enough.
As I alluded to earlier, free-markets are unstable and lead to monopoly. This is the direction in which AETNA is moving right now. Monopoly is 'control', as opposed to water finding it's own level. If Mr. Bertolini wants to propose a monopoly, the only question for the country is: Whose monopoly do you want? AETNA's, or ours.
Now is the time to turn to full socialized medicine. Forget the market and free-market dynamics. We are going to win this election, and overwhelm the now-defunct Republican Party. Let's take tactical advantage of this, Mr. Bertolini's extortion, to push us over the hump and have universal healthcare without regard to age, employment, wealth or privilege.
Restraint of trade laws were designed to combat monopolistic practices. With the Republicans controlling government for the past 16-years we haven't seen a lot of DOJ actions to enforce the Clayton Act, the Sherman Antitrust Act and the FTC Act lately. As a consequence, we have see all wealth go to the top 1%, leaving only the rubbish for the middle and poorer classes.
Flushed with the new normal of the wealthy having their way, Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini writes in his July 5th letter regarding the pending proposed merger of AETNA and HUMANA:
AETNA CEO Mark Bertolini wrote:"[W]e believe it is very likely that we would need to leave the public exchange business entirely and plan for additional business efficiencies should our deal ultimately be blocked,"
In other words, if we can't have unfettered control of the rules, we'll take our ball and bat and go home. Then y'all will be sorry! Or more succinctly, we own the game (ball and bat) and we want to own the rules.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA, or 'Obamacare') was enacted, in lieu of socialized medicine, to operate through the market, imposing controls on certain practices to assure that market serves the consumers and not exclusively the providers, or profit seekers. The ACA has received a lot of antagonism from Republicans (62 votes to repeal, so far), however which has been kept in check by the pure popularity and investment in it. by the population. But so far the tensions have been kept within the confines of the ACA.
The ACA was never meant to repeal any of the restraint of trade laws. But Mr. Bertolini is using his leverage within the ACA to combat the DOJ on the antitrust matter, in an effort to accomplish precisely that. His position is: the shackles that the ACA places upon us is not enough for us to leave that market, but if you oppose our monopolistic practices, it will be enough.
As I alluded to earlier, free-markets are unstable and lead to monopoly. This is the direction in which AETNA is moving right now. Monopoly is 'control', as opposed to water finding it's own level. If Mr. Bertolini wants to propose a monopoly, the only question for the country is: Whose monopoly do you want? AETNA's, or ours.
Now is the time to turn to full socialized medicine. Forget the market and free-market dynamics. We are going to win this election, and overwhelm the now-defunct Republican Party. Let's take tactical advantage of this, Mr. Bertolini's extortion, to push us over the hump and have universal healthcare without regard to age, employment, wealth or privilege.
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Re: How The American HLTHCARE Industry Blackmails our Federal Gov. to get their merger!
And some where - some how in all of the cosmic planetary alignment; this fiasco called 'Cheeto-Jesus' was predestined to force the Repugs from their pedestal of superior thinking and allow the Independents & Liberal Democrats to forge a way into the 21st Century --- then this is the rational and KARMA coming round full circle.Now is the time to turn to full socialized medicine. Forget the market and free-market dynamics. We are going to win this election, and overwhelm the now-defunct Republican Party. Let's take tactical advantage of this, Mr. Bertolini's extortion, to push us over the hump and have universal healthcare without regard to age, employment, wealth or privilege.
The pieces are starting to fall back to earth and the chaos will find a way back from the brink!
Whew ...I want to be dead and on some other level of my reincarnated life before this ever happens again!
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