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Barack Obama’s signature health-care law is struggling for one overriding reason: Selling mispriced insurance is a precarious business model. Aetna Inc. dealt the Affordable Care Act a severe setback by announcing Monday it would drastically reduce its participation in its insurance exchanges. Its reason: The company was attracting much sicker patients than expected. Indeed, all five of the largest national insurers say they are losing money on their ACA policies and three, including Aetna, are pulling back from the exchanges as a result. The problem isn’t technical or temporary; it’s intrinsic to how the law was written. (Ip, 8/17)

Facing high-profile withdrawals from online insurance exchanges and surging premiums, the Obama administration is preparing a major push to enroll new participants into public marketplaces under the Affordable Care Act. The administration is eyeing an advertising campaign featuring testimonials from newly insured consumers, as well as direct appeals to young people hit by tax penalties this year for failing to enroll. But as many insurers continue to lose money on the exchanges, they say the administration’s response is too late and too weak. (Pear and Abelson, 8/17)

Aetna's sudden decision to quit most of its Obamacare insurance markets was the latest mess in the health law's rockiest stretch in almost three years. It's Kevin Counihan's job to clean it up. Counihan, CEO of the federal insurance marketplace, told POLITICO's "Pulse Check" podcast that Aetna's flip-flop — the company announced Monday it will exit from 69 percent of counties it now serves through Obamacare, just three months after committing to stay and even expand — doesn't alter the administration's strategy. (Diamond, 8/18)

Recent decisions by giant health insurers to pull back from Obamacare exchanges across the country could make this fall’s enrollment period crucial to the program that has helped millions of people gain health coverage. “We won’t know until the next open enrollment, are we still moving forward or are we stalled or moving backward?” said Gary Claxton, director of the nonprofit research group Health Care Marketplace Project at Kaiser Family Foundation. “If the market grows, then I think many insurers will find a way to be part of it. “The next couple of months are a moment of truth,” he said. (Petersen and Sisson, 8/17)

Aetna said this week it is drastically curtailing its participation on the Affordable Care Act's insurance exchanges. But one of the largest not-for-profit health insurers does not plan on abandoning them anytime soon. Kaiser Permanente, the $61 billion system that includes health plans, hospitals and medical groups, is “absolutely” sticking with the exchanges over the long term, Kaiser CEO Bernard Tyson told Modern Healthcare on Wednesday. (Herman, 8/17)

Some of the Affordable Care Act’s insurance marketplaces are in turmoil as the fourth open enrollment season approaches this fall, but what’s ahead for consumers very much depends on where they live. Competition on these exchanges will be diminished next year when three of the nation’s largest health insurers — Aetna, UnitedHealthcare and Humana — will sell individual plans in many fewer markets. So too will several Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in various states. That’s on top of the 16 nonprofit co-ops that have closed since January 2015. (Galewitz, 8/17)

Oscar Insurance Corp., the startup backed by Silicon Valley investors, posted losses in New York, Texas and California in the first half of the year, the latest example of insurers both large and small losing money in new markets created by President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul. In New York, Oscar’s biggest market, the loss widened to $52.2 million from $15.5 million in the first half of 2015. The insurer also lost $12.9 million in California and $17.9 million in Texas, according to state filings, after starting to sell plans in Dallas, San Antonio and the Los Angeles area this year. (Edney and Tracer, 8/17)

Scott & White Health Plan, an insurance program run by the Dallas-based Baylor Scott & White Health system, said Wednesday that in 2017, it will exit the federal health care marketplace established under the Affordable Care Act. The announcement follows Aetna's decision to stop selling plans on the marketplace announced Tuesday.  Scott & White Health  said the decision was made before they became aware of United Health Care and Aetna's decisions. (Rice, 8/17)

Health insurance premiums for Massachusetts’ small businesses and individuals covered by Harvard Pilgrim Health Care will rise by double digits over the next six months, nearly twice the pace of last year. Those are among the higher rate increases announced Wednesday by the Massachusetts Division of Insurance for small businesses and individual customers of the state’s health insurers. On average, small businesses will see their rates rise 8.2 percent for plans that renew Oct. 1. Those plans affect 106,426 people who work for companies with fewer than 50 employees. Roughly half those members are covered by Blue Cross Blue Shield’s HMO Blue plan, where rates will rise 4.6 percent on Oct. 1, compared with 8 percent a year ago. (Healy, 8/17)