Aetna Announces Transaction with Vitality Re II

HARTFORD, Conn. – Aetna (NYSE: AET) today announced that, as part of its long-term capital management strategy, it has entered into a three-year reinsurance agreement with Vitality Re II Limited. The agreement allows Aetna to reduce its required capital and provides $150 million of collateralized excess of loss reinsurance coverage on a portion of Aetna’s group commercial health insurance business.Amounts payable under the reinsurance agreement are based on the annual medical benefit ratio (“MBR”) of a portion of Aetna Life Insurance Company’s group commercial PPO, POS and indemnity business compared to a threshold attachment point specified in the reinsurance agreement. The principal amount of the Vitality Re II notes, which are non-recourse to Aetna, and the coverage available under the reinsurance agreement will be reduced by any payments to Aetna under the reinsurance agreement. Aetna will be entitled to begin to receive payments from Vitality Re II under the reinsurance agreement if the MBR of the covered business for calendar year 2011 reaches an initial attachment point of 100%. The full $150 million of coverage would be paid to Aetna if the MBR of the covered business reaches an initial exhaustion point of 120% for calendar year 2011. The attachment and exhaustion points will be reset annually for 2012 and 2013 to maintain modeled probabilities of attachment and expected loss on the Vitality Re II notes equal to the initial modeled probabilities of attachment and expected loss. Vitality Re II is a newly formed insurance company which issued health insurance-linked notes in a private offering in connection with this agreement.

“I am pleased to announce the successful completion of our second transaction, which allows Aetna to free up additional capital held with respect to the covered business, and deploy it accretively for other purposes,” said Joseph M. Zubretsky, senior executive vice president and CFO. “As with Vitality Re, this transaction provides catastrophic risk protection, improves our capital efficiency, and reduces our weighted average cost of capital.”

About Aetna

Aetna is one of the nation’s leading diversified health care benefits companies, serving approximately 33.8 million people with information and resources to help them make better informed decisions about their health care. Aetna offers a broad range of traditional, voluntary and consumer-directed health insurance products and related services, including medical, pharmacy, dental, behavioral health, group life and disability plans, and medical management capabilities and health care management services for Medicaid plans. Our customers include employer groups, individuals, college students, part-time and hourly workers, health plans, governmental units, government-sponsored plans, labor groups and expatriates. For more information, see www.aetna.com. To learn more about Aetna’s innovative online tools, visit www.aetnatools.com.

Aetna Media Contact:

Fred Laberge
860-273-4788
Labergear@aetna.com

Investor Contact:

Tom Cowhey
860-273-2402
CowheyT@aetna.com