The U.S. Department of Justice filed two anti-trust lawsuits on Thursday to block the mergers of four of the nation’s five largest health insurance companies.
The proposed mergers have run into stiff opposition.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the multi-billion dollar mergers would fundamentally reshape the health insurance industry
“They would leave much of the multi-trillion-dollar health insurance industry in the hands of just three mammoth insurance companies,” Lynch said, “drastically constricting competition in a number of key markets that tens of millions of Americans rely on to receive health care.”
Both mergers have been opposed by members of Congress, hospitals, doctors, and state Attorneys General who say less competition would threaten consumers with higher prices.
The larger of the two multi-billion-dollar deals is a takeover of Connecticut-based Cigna by Anthem.
Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen was among 11 state attorneys general who signed onto that lawsuit seeking to block that deal.
“The combination of the two would be to create a colossus nearly twice as large as the nearest competitor,” Jepsen said
Jepsen said Connecticut consumers would also lose out on Cigna’s focus on preventative health care if the merger were to go through.
Cigna said in a statement they are evaluating their options.
A merger of Aetna and Humana would focus on Medicare, most of which is provided by the federal government.
In a statement, Connecticut-based Aetna said there is robust competition in Medicare and that they will vigorously defend their proposed merger.
