As Aetna and Humana head to trial Monday to defend Aetna's $37 billion acquisition of Humana, Aetna says its decision to leave the majority of ACA exchanges it participated in this year should not hold clout over the court's ruling, reports Louisville Business First.
Hartford, Conn.-based Aetna warned the U.S. Department of Justice in a July 5 letter it would reduce its 2017 ACA exchange footprint if the DOJ sued to enjoin its acquisition of Louisville, Ky.-based Humana. On July 21, attorneys general from several states and the DOJ sued the payers, claiming the proposed deal would hamper competition. Aetna's threat materialized August 15 when the insurer said it would pull out of 11 of the 15 state ACA exchanges the insurer belongs to next year.
The DOJ has argued a combined Aetna-Humana insurer would raise costs for exchange plans in 17 counties. According to Louisville Business First, Aetna officials said in a pretrial memo the insurer halted ACA plan sales in those counties and hundreds of others due to losses incurred on the exchanges. The insurer said the DOJ's "effort to create a sideshow about Aetna's intent does not change the fact that Aetna's exit from the challenged counties forecloses the possibility of any anticompetitive effects in those counties."
Should U.S. District Judge John Bates render the DOJ's argument concerning ACA plan competition insufficient, the DOJ still has its cornerstone argument involving antitrust concerns over a noncompetitive Aetna-Humana Medicare Advantage market share.