U.S. Government Files Lawsuits To Block Health Insurance Company Mergers

Lawsuits were filed Thursday by the U.S. Justice Department to block two large health insurance mergers, making the string of antitrust actions this year the largest on record for abandoned deals, The New York Times reported. The Justice Department, as well as a number of states and the District of Columbia, want to break up the combination of Anthem and Cigna, for $48 billion, as well as Aetna’s $37 billion deal with Humana, the report said. Allowing the four companies to merge would quash competition among insurers, the Justice Department said, leading to higher consumer prices and reducing their benefits. The health insurance industry has five major companies, but if these deals went...