Now a federal judge has ruled that that was a rank falsehood. In fact, says Judge John D. Bates, Aetna made its decision at least partially in response to a federal antitrust lawsuit blocking its proposed $37-billion merger with Humana. Aetna threatened federal officials with the pullout before the lawsuit was filed, and followed through on its threat once it was filed...
Aetna executives had moved heaven and earth to conceal their decision-making process from the court, in part by discussing the matter on the phone rather than in emails, and by shielding what did get put in writing with the cloak of attorney-client privilege, a practice Bates found came close to “malfeasance.â€
Predictably, commercial media that endorsed Obamneycare are trying to spin this report into an endorsement of Obamneycare. In reality, it shows how lobbyists wrote the legislation to maximize the power of entrenched industry players: heads they win, tails you lose.
invite response
no competition either way:
"Aetna misled the public about its reasons for quitting Obamacare
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Aetna claimed this summer that it was pulling out of all but four of the 15 states where it was providing Obamacare individual insurance because of a business decision — it was simply losing too much money on the Obamacare exchanges.
Now a federal judge has ruled that that was a rank falsehood. In fact, says Judge John D. Bates, Aetna made its decision at least partially in response to a federal antitrust lawsuit blocking its proposed $37-billion merger with Humana. Aetna threatened federal officials with the pullout before the lawsuit was filed, and followed through on its threat once it was filed...
Aetna executives had moved heaven and earth to conceal their decision-making process from the court, in part by discussing the matter on the phone rather than in emails, and by shielding what did get put in writing with the cloak of attorney-client privilege, a practice Bates found came close to “malfeasance.â€
Predictably, commercial media that endorsed Obamneycare are trying to spin this report into an endorsement of Obamneycare. In reality, it shows how lobbyists wrote the legislation to maximize the power of entrenched industry players: heads they win, tails you lose.