Aetna CEO Threatened Obamacare Pullout If Feds Opposed Humana Merger

This is precisely why single payer is desperately needed. And proof that Obamacare is a Rube Goldberg machine. I remember listening to a Kentucky senator who said they were gobsmacked that no insurance company signed up in his state. The program is based on wishes, not good practices. Having Justice tinker with antitrust to keep it alive will never work. Insurance companies could give a F about their policy holders, their shareholders and profits are the only ones who count.

This is not proof at all that "Obamacare is a Rube Goldberg machine." This is a major insurer pulling out the markets, but over trivial amounts of losses.

I don't know what you mean about Kentucky. There are plenty of health insurance companies with offering on the Kentucky exchanges (Anthem BCBS, CareSource Kentucky, Humana, Aetna, and Bluegrass Family Health). And in any event, even if there truly were no insurance companies with offerings on the Kentucky exchanges, I find it very implausible that either Mitch McConnell, or Rand Paul would have claimed to be "gobsmacked." They were leaders in the fight against ACA, and they certainly claimed before passage that the law would destroy the health care industry.

I don't think it's fair to categorize Aetna's annual loss of ~300M as trivial. That represents about 12.5% of their profits. If someone cut your salary by 12.5% I don't think you would think that was trivial.

Salary is analogous to revenue not profits.

Salary is the money I get from my employer to buy stuff with.

If I'm a shareholder of a company, then my cut of their profits (not revenue) is money I get to buy stuff with.