Texas Losing Aetna Affordable Care Act Insurance Exchanges

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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM/AP) — Aetna will abandon Affordable Care Act insurance exchanges next year in Texas and 10 other states amid financial concerns.

The nation's third-largest insurer has not released specifics on how many clients in Texas use the exchange.

Aetna late Monday announced that a second-quarter pre-tax loss of $200 million from its individual insurance coverage helped it decide to limit exposure to the exchanges. Aetna hasn't ruled out a future expansion on the exchanges "should there be meaningful exchange-related policy improvements," Chairman and CEO Mark Bertolini said in a statement.

The announcement came several weeks after UnitedHealth and Humana also said they would cut their coverage plans for 2017 and after more than a dozen nonprofit insurance co-ops have shut down in the past couple of years.

Experts say it's too soon to determine how shrinking insurer participation will affect rates beyond next year.

Health insurers have been finalizing their exchange plans over the past several weeks, ahead of the November 1 start of enrollment for 2017 coverage.

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