Aetna Inc AET.N said on Tuesday that it no longer planned to expand its Obamacare business next year and would sell some Medicare Advantage assets as it fights to gain antitrust regulators' approval for its takeover of Humana Inc HUM.N.

A trader points up at a display on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange August 20, 2012. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

The U.S. health insurer, which is losing money on the plans it sells in 15 states to individuals on exchanges created under President Barack Obama’s national healthcare law, said it also was looking at whether it should continue to offer the contracts.

That statement is a departure from Aetna’s stance at the beginning of the year, when Chief Executive Officer Mark Bertolini said he believed the insurer had an obligation to stick with the public health exchange market.

What has changed, he said, is that patients who signed up for Aetna’s exchange plans in 2016 have proved to be much sicker than those who enrolled the year before.

“Because the whole pool is so ill, there’s so much utilization, everybody’s losing money,” Bertolini said in an interview.

Aetna said its exchange-based plans for individuals had a pretax operating loss of $200 million in the second quarter, and it projected the loss from that business would exceed $300 million by year-end. It had initially expected to break even on the plans.

The company’s review of its exchange business comes as Aetna prepares for a court battle against the U.S. Department of Justice, which in July sued to block the proposed $33 billion purchase of Humana on grounds that it would harm competition across the country.

Asked about the timing of the Obamacare re-evaluation, Bertolini said people seeking care through the exchange products need coverage, but the company also has an obligation to its 23 million other customers who need to have a solvent insurer.

Aetna's move follows UnitedHealth Group Inc's UNH.N announcement in April that it would largely exit the Obamacare individual insurance market in 2017. In May, Humana also said it was considering ending the sale of Obamacare individual plans in some states in 2017 to stem losses there.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokeswoman Marjorie Connolly said the exchanges would continue to thrive as insurers compete for consumers’ business.

“Consumers coming back to shop for 2017 will continue to have a robust set of choices,” Connolly said in a statement.

Other U.S. health insurers have been losing money in their businesses that offer plans under the Affordable Care Act, which is better known as Obamacare. Last week, Anthem Inc ANTM.N also said it expects to lose money this year on its business selling individual health coverage on the exchanges.

Aetna said the $117 million deal with Molina addressed a major concern of the Justice Department in its challenge to the Humana acquisition by giving older people more options for Medicare coverage.

Molina Healthcare Inc MOH.N plans to buy a portfolio of about 290,000 Medicare Advantage members in 21 states from Aetna and Humana.

Aetna reported higher-than-expected quarterly revenue and earnings on Tuesday as membership grew in its government business, under which it sells Medicare and Medicaid plans.

Shares of Aetna were up 1.1 percent at $115.75 in afternoon trading.

The insurer affirmed its full-year outlook for operating earnings of $7.90 to $8.10 a share.

Aetna’s medical benefit ratio, the percentage of premiums spent on claims, rose to 82.4 percent from 81.1 percent a year earlier as medical costs increased in the Obamacare business.

Net income rose 8 percent to $790.8 million, or $2.23 per share.

Excluding special items, Aetna earned $2.21 per share, exceeding the analysts’ average estimate of $2.12, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue rose about 5 percent to $15.95 billion, beating Wall Street expectations of $15.69 billion.