This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Per Bloomberg via the Charlotte Observer:
Health insurer Aetna will stop selling individual Affordable Care Act plans next year in 11 of the 15 states where it had been participating in the program, including North Carolina and South Carolina, joining other major insurers who have pulled out of the government-run markets in the face of mounting losses.
Other markets it will leave include Pennsylvania and Florida, but it will continue selling plans in Iowa, Delaware, Nebraska and Virginia, Aetna said in a statement Monday. In most areas it is exiting, Aetna will offer individual coverage outside of the program’s exchanges.
The decision by Aetna is the latest blow to President Barack Obama’s signature domestic policy law. While it has brought coverage to millions, the new markets have proven volatile for some of the largest for-profit insurers, and UnitedHealth Group and Humana are also pulling out, after posting hundreds of millions of dollars of their own losses. Aetna said earlier this year that it expects to lose $300 million on the plans.
The complete list of states in which Aetna will be exiting the ACA market: Arizona, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Florida, Missouri, South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, Texas, Illinois and Ohio.
