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After 18 months of courtship and court cases, two massive deals that would have reshaped the U.S. health insurance industry have both been declared dead, blocked by judges who said they’d do unacceptable harm to competition in the industry.
The transaction would violate antitrust laws by reducing competition among insurers, U.S. District Judge John D. Bates in Washington ruled on Monday.
Witnesses say combination will squeeze reimbursement rates as the insurers counter that merger will lower healthcare costs.
Aetna's attempt to assuage U.S. antitrust concerns over its $37 billion takeover of Humana by selling assets to a smaller company landed with a resounding thud.
Anthem Inc.’s proposed merger with Cigna Corp. would reduce health-care competition and raise costs for consumers, U.S. antitrust lawyers will argue Monday when the government goes to court to block the transaction.
Letters and e-mails between the two companies may become evidence in the Justice Department’s lawsuit seeking to halt the $48 billion.
The decision on the trial’s timing comes after the DOJ tried to persuade a U.S. District judge to delay the start until January, after the companies’ self-imposed merger deadline.
The judge overseeing two U.S. cases challenging mergers among four of the biggest health insurers gave up one, improving the odds for rulings on both tie-ups by the end of the year and reducing the chance they fall apart beforehand.
The takeover is in “danger of collapsing” unless there’s a quick trial to resolve a U.S. lawsuit seeking to block the deal.
U.S. antitrust enforcers roundly rejected a pair of proposed deals that would consolidate the nation’s five biggest health insurers into three.
With Aetna Inc. and Humana Inc. pairing off, pressure is mounting on other major health insurers to make their own deals.