Is aetna.com Safe?

Aetna’s profit is exceeding expectations under ObamaCare. About a month ago the insurance giant’s stock hit an all-time high. Ironically, Aetna’s CEO tried to argue on CNBC that the company is somehow suffering under ObamaCare because enrollment numbers are worse than expected and healthcare.gov’s back end is still not up and running. No doubt ObamaCare’s enrollment numbers are unimpressive and the website still doesn’t function right. But that doesn’t mean that large insurance companies aren’t the biggest beneficiaries of ObamaCare. That’s one of the best kept secrets in the health care debate: the behind closed doors, cozy relationship the insurance companies have with the Obama administration, which they are using to their benefit. While the insurance companies and the Obama administration publicly vilify one another, in private, the administration works closely with the insurers to make sure that ObamaCare is implemented in a way that scratches both of their backs. A new Oversight Committee report and recent hearing detailed the close relationship and explained that the administration and the insurers traded talking points on numerous occasions during the botched ObamaCare rollout. It turns out, at the end of October, Valerie Jarrett, President Obama’s senior adviser, invited the CEOs of Aetna, Humana, the Health Care Services Corporation, Centene Corp., Wellpoint, Kaiser Permanente, Tufts Health, Health Net, CareFirst, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, and America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) all to the White House for a meeting with Obama’s chief of staff Denis McDonough. This meeting took place October 31, the last day that insurance companies could claim the government was negligent in failing to have a functional exchange website. In this meeting, the insurers were urged to keep quiet on issues related to the rollout and made promises that they’d be rewarded later. New emails between Valerie Jarrett and insurance company executives reveal the extraordinary measures the Obama administration is taking to protect insurance companies from sharing the burden created by this disastrous law. All the while, thousands of average Americans are preparing for more insurance cancellations and increased premiums. Hasn’t America had enough of this kind of cronyism and back-door dealings? This is another reason why it’s such a mistake to give government so much power over our economy and our health care system—you can be sure that they will be cutting special deals with the political power, while giving hardworking taxpayers like you the shaft. Keep up the pressure on Congress so that we can repeal ObamaCare and get back to the fight for genuine health reform. Sincerely, Carrie Lukas Vice President for Policy and Economics Independent Women's Voice