Citing a second-quarter pretax loss of $200 million and total pretax losses of more than $430 million since January 2014 in its individual products, “we have decided to reduce our individual public exchange presence in 2017, which will limit our financial exposure moving forward,” Bertolini said in a statement at the time.

This included cuts in Florida.


In this latest suit, however, the DOJ case included documents showing, as of July 20, 2016, that Aetna's “Florida on-exchange business is profitable.”

The insurer's decision last year to pull out was also a reversal of the position Bertolini took during an April conference call when he declared the marketplace "a good investment.” He advised at the time, "If we were to build out 15 markets, it would cost us somewhere between $600 million to $750 million to enter those markets and build out the capabilities necessary to grow that membership."

The coincidental timing of the letter, the pull-out and the government's decision was not lost on Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who blasted the decision on her Facebook page in August, 2016:

“In July, the Justice Department announced that it would sue to block Aetna’s merger with another health insurance company because it would create monopoly-like conditions that reduce competition and drive up insurance costs,” she stated. “Aetna says this change of tone about the Affordable Care Act has nothing to do with the merger – but some analysts have suggested that Aetna might 'use its future participation in the exchanges in bargaining over its purchase of Humana.'

“Aetna may not like the Justice Department’s decision to challenge its merger, and it has every right to fight that decision in court. But violating antitrust law is a legal question, not a political one. The health of the American people should not be used as bargaining chips to force the government to bend to one giant company’s will.”

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