The new letter does not prove that Aetna was retaliating against the Obama administration, attempting to harm Obamacare’s future because of the merger obstacles. Aetna has said it was purely financial; that it couldn’t sustain the losses on the marketplace any longer if it didn’t get the economic boost it expected the merger to deliver.
But what it does show is something that Aetna has repeatedly denied: that there was a connection between the merger and its marketplace sales.