{"id":3596,"date":"2015-07-03T07:11:00","date_gmt":"2015-07-03T15:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/aetna-announces-37-billion-merger-with-health-insurance-rival-humana\/3596\/"},"modified":"2015-07-03T07:11:00","modified_gmt":"2015-07-03T15:11:00","slug":"aetna-announces-37-billion-merger-with-health-insurance-rival-humana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/aetna-announces-37-billion-merger-with-health-insurance-rival-humana\/","title":{"rendered":"Aetna Announces $37 Billion Merger With Health Insurance Rival Humana"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Scott Neuman<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

\"Health<\/a><\/div>\n
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<\/div>\n
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Health insurance giant Aetna has announced a $37 billion plan to acquire rival Humana. Jessica Hill\/AP<\/strong> hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

i<\/strong>toggle caption Jessica Hill\/AP<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In what could prove the largest-ever merger in the insurance industry, Aetna<\/a> has announced a $37 billion deal to acquire rival Humana<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The agreement<\/a>, announced by the Hartford, Conn.-based Aetna, “would bolster Aetna’s presence in the state- and federally funded Medicaid program and Tricare coverage for military personnel and their families,” according to The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

Word of the cash and stock agreement comes a day after Centene<\/a> said it would pay $6.3 billion to buy Health Net<\/a>. According to the AP, the Centene-Health Net merger “would help Centene expand in the nation’s biggest Medicaid market, California, and give it a Medicare presence in several Western states.”<\/p>\n

Reuters notes<\/a> that the deal between Aetna and Humana “will push Aetna close to Anthem Inc.’s No. 2 insurer spot by membership and would nearly triple Aetna’s Medicare Advantage business,” but adds that the agreement still faces antitrust scrutiny.<\/p>\n

In theory, a consolidation of the insurance industry in the wake of Obamacare is supposed to lower costs for consumers. But Forbes quotes<\/a> Martin Gaynor, a Carnegie Mellon economist and former Federal Trade Commission official, as saying: “It’s not clear to me, do they get any more scale economies from getting bigger?”<\/p>\n

Forbes<\/em> also quotes Robert Town, a health care professor at the Wharton School, as saying consolidation among giant insurers reminds him “of the airline sector, and I don’t think there have been efficiencies gained there.”<\/p>\n

“The economies of scale in insurance are relatively modest,” Town said.<\/p>\n

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org\/content-only\/faq.php#publishers.<\/em><\/p>\n

Source:: http:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/thetwo-way\/2015\/07\/03\/419797436\/aetna-announces-37-billion-merger-with-rival-humana?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=healthcare<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Health<\/a><\/div>\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Health insurance giant Aetna has announced a $37 billion plan to acquire rival Humana. Jessica Hill\/AP<\/strong> hide caption<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

i<\/strong>toggle caption Jessica Hill\/AP<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

In what could prove the largest-ever merger in the insurance industry, Aetna<\/a> has announced a $37 billion deal to acquire rival Humana<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The agreement<\/a>, announced by the Hartford, Conn.-based Aetna, “would bolster Aetna’s presence in the state- and federally funded Medicaid program and Tricare coverage for military personnel and their families,” according to The Associated Press.<\/p>\n

Word of the cash and stock agreement comes a day after Centene<\/a> said it would pay $6.3 billion to buy Health Net<\/a>. According to the AP, the Centene-Health Net merger “would help Centene expand in the nation’s biggest Medicaid market, California, and give it a Medicare presence in several Western states.”<\/p>\n

Reuters notes<\/a> that the deal between Aetna and Humana “will push Aetna close to Anthem Inc.’s No. 2 insurer spot by membership and would nearly triple Aetna’s Medicare Advantage business,” but adds that the agreement still faces antitrust scrutiny.<\/p>\n

In theory, a consolidation of the insurance industry in the wake of Obamacare is supposed to lower costs for consumers. But Forbes quotes<\/a> Martin Gaynor, a Carnegie Mellon economist and former Federal Trade Commission official, as saying: “It’s not clear to me, do they get any more scale economies from getting bigger?”<\/p>\n

Forbes<\/em> also quotes Robert Town, a health care professor at the Wharton School, as saying consolidation among giant insurers reminds him “of the airline sector, and I don’t think there have been efficiencies gained there.”<\/p>\n

“The economies of scale in insurance are relatively modest,” Town said.<\/p>\n

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org\/content-only\/faq.php#publishers.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3596\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}