The Justice Dept. is suing to block two proposed mergers between major health insurance companies, saying the deals violate antitrust laws. The lawsuits argue that a $37 billion merger between Humana and Aetna would lead to higher health-insurance prices, reduced benefits, less innovation, and worse service for over a million Americans. The DOJ also says that the $54 billion acquisition of Cigna by Anthem would be the largest merger in the history of the health insurance industry. California insurance commissioner Dave Jones said, “I urged the DOJ to prevent these health insurance mergers, which would result in a highly concentrated, less competitive health insurance market doing irreparable harm to consumers and businesses. During the public hearings I convened, I questioned executives from Anthem, Cigna, Aetna and Humana. None of the companies were able to substantiate their claims of savings associated with the mergers. Not one company executive was willing to commit to pass along alleged cost savings to consumers through lower premiums. Bigger is not better when it comes to health insurance mergers. History has shown that health insurance mergers result in higher prices, fewer choices, and lower quality of care.”
Dr. Merrill Matthews of The Institute for Policy Innovation said, “The Obama administration is attempting to block the Aetna-Humana and Anthem-Cigna mergers because it wants more competition, but if compounding financial losses force these companies to drop out of the exchanges, there won’t be any competition. Two larger health insurers are better than none. Health insurance company mergers started shortly after the ACA passed in order to survive the new environment of high costs and government regulations…For example, Arizona’s Maricopa County was once praised as a center of robust competition with eight insurance companies competing in its ACA exchange. But in just a few years, that number will drop to only three insurers, two of which are Aetna and Cigna. If Washington stifles these same companies’ attempts to stay afloat in the exchanges, Maricopa County and other areas could see only a single insurer available in its marketplace—if any at all…If the Department of Justice’s stonewalling is successful, those insurers will likely join many others and pull out of the Obamacare exchanges, leaving even less competition and higher prices. And that will force the administration to devise even more excuses for why health care costs are exploding.”
