The financial crisis started out as a credit crunch–a lesson not lost on Aetna. The company today reported a loss of $130 million in the fourth quarter, and a total of $326.5 million last year, related to “other-than-temporary impairments of debt securities,” which lost value last year as credit spreads widened. (The company still reported a profit for the quarter and the year.)

This is a chronicle of a loss foretold–as we noted in October, Aetna posted a $120 million loss in the third quarter on fixed-income investments hit by widening credit spreads, and another $70 million loss on investments in the debt securities of Lehman Brothers and Washington Mutual.

At least Aetna has company–everybody in the sector seems to have been stung by the crisis, from Humana’s investment losses to UnitedHealth’s write-down on its venture capital program.

Overall, Aetna reported net income of $194.7 million for the fourth quarter, compared with $448.4 million for the year-earlier period For the full year, the company reported net income of $1.4 billion, compared with $1.8 billion for 2007. Here’s a Dow Jones Newswires story on the company’s earnings.

Photo: Getty Images

Tags: intermountain health care, health care ethical issues, health care reform, health care statistics, rates for non medical home health care, philippine health care delivery system, harvard pilgrim health care, outline of american health care system, non medical in home health care services, hispanic health care in the us