A Victory for the Future of Health Care

The Department of Justice got it just right when it focused its challenge to Anthem’s acquisition of Cigna and Aetna’s acquisition of Humana on the harm to quality and innovation in health care. DOJ echoed the exact arguments we made repeatedly before antitrust officials, Congress and others about how these mega-deals threatened consumers. The proposed deals would have reduced the number of commercial health insurance giants from five to three – just three companies covering nearly 44% of insured Americans, with nearly $345 billion in revenue. That might be good for the bottom lines of these companies – but not for consumers, who would have faced fewer choices for coverage at higher costs. Hospitals are eager to partner with others, including insurers, to transform care by making it more responsive to the needs of consumers. We hope DOJ’s decision encourages insurers to partner with us in building a better, more durable continuum of care for the people we serve.