The news that Aetna, UnitedHealthcare and Humana are pulling back on commitments to sell insurance on Healthcare.gov was greeted with utterly predictable reactions: Republicans yelling that they told us Obamacare wouldn't work, while Democrats say the GOP has cried wolf about the Affordable Care Act for years.
But no one is listening to what Aetna and United actually said: The problem's not really Obamacare. Their biggest challenge in individual insurance is the cost of super-expensive new drugs, especially to fight hepatitis C and HIV — both markets dominated by erstwhile Wall Street darling Gilead Sciences.
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