the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Sep 5, 2016
Aetna recently said that due to persistent financial losses on Obamacare plans, it will sell individual insurance on the government-run online marketplaces in only four states next year, down from the current 15 states, according to NBC News. This reduction in coverage is nothing but a blatant threat.
Aetna’s real reason to throw this threat is that the government challenged its deal to buy rival Humana Inc., which is another huge health insurance company. If this merger goes through, only three big insurers would remain–Aetna, Anthem and United Health. And the healthcare costs for us would rise and Aetna’s profit would further skyrocket.
These companies are already very hugely profitable by dominating Medicare and Medicaid. They collect most of their revenues directly from the government, or in other words, from our taxes.
And the Affordable Care Act has made them even more profitable. Between March 2009, and February of 2016, Humana’s share price went up an incredible 1010 percent. Aetna was up 628 percent. These mind boggling share price increases show how beneficial the Affordable Care Act has been–for them!
Hey, this is how capitalism works. It doesn’t work.