CHEATING? Judge says Aetna dropped out of some Obamacare markets to help win its merger fight.

Aetna announced it would pull out of most of the state exchanges where it sold health insurance under the Affordable Care Act last August, citing financial losses. But a U.S. District Court judge who rejected the company’s proposed merger with Humana on Monday revealed in his opinion that profitability wasn’t the only concern driving the company’s decision — Aetna also exited several markets as part of an effort to “improve its litigation position.”

U.S. District Court Judge John D. Bates wrote that Aetna, pushing for a $37 billion merger with Humana since summer of 2015, decided to leave 17 counties in three states in order to improve the likelihood that the deal would be approved — including one where the business was doing well. Florida was the company’s third most-profitable exchange market in 2015 and the beginning of 2016.

If ObamaCare had allowed for a single, nationwide market for health insurance instead of further entrenching the country’s 51 little insurance fiefdoms, then gamesmanship like this wouldn’t be possible.