The pressure group,
Coalition to Preserve Patient Choice and AMA are no longer alone as two U.S. consumer groups joined forces with the New York labor unions to encourage regulators to oppose big insurance mergers.
They believe that mergers of this size could mean many nationwide for-profit health insurers cease to exist with numbers of for-profit insurers falling from five to three. This could mean fewer jobs for those in the insurance industry. Such combined business models could also affect prices for consumers driving them up as high as 14%.
The petitioning began after several mergers took place within the insurance market and elsewhere in the health sector in a short space of time. According to Mergermarket, in the first 9 months of 2015, the US saw mergers and acquisitions take place on the scale of $270 billion.
Anthem Inc purchased for Cigna Corp for $47b and Aetna Inc merged with Humana Inc for $37b.
In a statement Aetna said regarding its deal for Humana was "primarily about the Medicare marketplace, where there is robust competition and choice. We are confident that our transaction will receive a fair, thorough and fact-based review from the Department of Justice and the states."
Coalition to Preserve Patient Choice, fears that when it comes to health insurance such monopoly across the board would mean less choice for those seeking healthcare.
Even Hilary Clinton has spoken out saying she was “very sceptical” the mergers would benefit consumers. It is thought that aside from centralising systems it won’t do much good for insurance professionals either.
Consolidation is a big way to cut costs and if it is a motivator for such deals it may mean that the choice of insurance is limited, jobs are cut and quality is lost.
The
American Medical Association has asked for the deals to be blocked citing in a letter to the assistant attorney general “significant concerns with respect to the impact on consumers in terms of health care access, quality and affordability.”
With consumer groups joining the
Coalition to Preserve Patient Choice, this movement is bad news for other health insurers looking to merge.
