Posted on 04/30/2017 1:07:10 AM PDT by blueplum
Anthem’s efforts to buy Cigna were dealt a potentially fatal blow Friday despite the health insurance giant’s deep connections to the White House. A US appeals court blocked health insurer Anthem’s bid to merge with rival Cigna on Friday, upholding a lower court’s decision that the $54 billion deal should not be allowed because it would lead to higher prices for healthcare...
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
In addition to sharing that the Justice Dept is good with the merger not going through, here's what the Reuter's article says relating to higher prices:
"In a split decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit disagreed with Anthem's contention that the Justice Department and lower court improperly rejected its assertions that the deal would lead to billions of dollars in medical savings. "Anthem has not explained why these projected savings would even exist," Judge Judith Rogers wrote in the opinion. "The record is clear that Anthem, unlike Cigna, has already achieved whatever economies of scale are available... Kavanaugh argued that a combined Anthem/Cigna would require higher payments to manage the accounts but that would be offset by better negotiated rates paid to providers."
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-cigna-m-a-anthem-idUSKBN17U25A
Less competition is a bad thing.
Since when does the Justice Dept tell Appeal Courts how to vote on an issue? What a crap biased headline.
There are economies of scale...but there comes a point where “deals” can’t be negotiated any better. If you have squeezed all the profit out of someone, there is no longer a reason for that person to continue negotiating. They will just walk away from a deal.
I see this as good news. “Too big to fail” in any industry should be translated to: “Too big to exist.”
Spicer should call out the fAke reporters who said deep ties to white house.
I’m not sure if it’s good or not, AC. If Aetna has already reached ‘economy of scale’ does that mean that Aetna prices are as low as they’re going to go?
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