Time must be hard for businesses in Connecticut. According to Courant, in mid-January. General Electric Co. had announced that it will be leaving its headquarters in Fairfield after 42 years and will be transferring to Boston. Since then, many officials and locals are concerned that sooner or later another major business might go out of state and leave hundreds jobless.
To add to the state's anxieties, Aetna Inc. reportedly announced recently that the only community where it operates its government-related work will be Louisville, Kentucky. According to Courant, Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini has told investor analysts that Humana, the site in Louisville which Aetna is offering to buy for $34 million, is where Aetna plans to establish as its headquarters for Medicare, Medicaid and other government insurance plans.
Bertolini said, "Louisville is actually the only community where we've made a real estate commitment." he said.
He added, "But we've made a commitment to only one community as a location for the most important part of our business, and that's Louisville."
Earlier, according to Hartford Courant, Aetna has admitted that Obamacare policies suffered losses of 3 to 4 percent in 2015. After that the company's chairman and CEO reportedly had said one of the issues that the need to address is where the employees could transfer to once the merger with Humana materializes. Bertolini said that the merget has been approved by seven states.
About 5,000 employees in the Aetna headquarters in downtown Hartford must be feeling anxious about this news. If Aetna transfers its headquarters to Louisville, 5000 people in Hartford might be left with no jobs. Wedbush analyst Sarah James, according to Hartford Courant, believes that the merger is most likely to close in the latter half of the year.
