Several Health Insurer Merger Talks Are In Progress.

[AllenChicago]

June 21, 2015

Anthem wants Cigna. Aetna wants Humana. United Healthcare wants Aetna.

Ref: Health Mergers Could Cut Consumer Options - WSJ
and
Ref: Will 'big 5' health insurers become 'big 3' under Obamacare? - DailyHerald.com

Any others???

 

[somarco]

 

[CMS]

June 21, 2015 Anthem wants Cigna. Aetna wants Humana. United Healthcare wants Aetna. Ref: Health Mergers Could Cut Consumer Options - WSJ and Ref: Will 'big 5' health insurers become 'big 3' under Obamacare? - DailyHerald.com Any others???

Assurant wants United Healthcare

 

[OregonDave]

Assurant wants United Healthcare

NGIC which owns AHCP bought Assurant. Say that ten times fast.

 

[moonlightandmargaritas]

Assurant wants United Healthcare

A company the size of Assurant is barely a pimple on UHC's butt.

NGIC which owns AHCP bought Assurant.

Correction: NGIC didn't "buy" Assurant. They bought some assets from Assurant. Big difference.

 

[Brian Anderson]

I'll take a stab at it, from trying to keep track of everything in the news this week...

- Anthem wants Cigna or Humana ($47 billion bid for Cigna being rebuffed)
- Cigna might bid for Humana to defend itself from Anthem or Aetna
- Aetna might bid for Humana (more likely if Anthem takes over Cigna)
- UHC might bid for (more likely) Aetna or (less likely) Cigna, but not Humana

Once first deal happens, second one will follow to turn big 5 into big 3. Or not.

 

[OregonDave]

A company the size of Assurant is barely a pimple on UHC's butt.


Correction: NGIC didn't "buy" Assurant. They bought some assets from Assurant. Big difference.

Correct. I already posted at length about this elsewhere though, no need to dominate the conversation. You run the ball this time!

 

[AllenChicago]

The first merger will be the easiest one, according to this article:
Health Insurers Seen in Merger Race to Win Antitrust Approval - Bloomberg Business
The rest will have an uphill battle against government resistance.

 

[AllenChicago]

July 6, 2015

It's interesting that Aetna's CEO told the justice department that the Aetna purchase of Humana could be part of a bigger deal that's in the works. It's speculated Bertolini is saying that United Healthcare will register to buy Aetna/Humana. The justice department will be able to approve/deny that 3-some merger as a single transaction..or something like that.

Anyway, there are several articles this week describing the back-room intrigues, strategies, and potential snags. Here's one of the easiest to read..

Deal-Related Jitters Hit Humana, Aetna - NASDAQ.com

Also, I didn't know that Humana was (secretly?) negotiating with Aetna, Cigna and Anthem simultaneously. Obviously, Aetna offered the best buyout deal.
ac

 

[somarco]

AC, how do you and Yagents find the time to locate and read all this stuff? Do you ever sleep?

As for the merger speculation as it relates to the Justice Dept (antitrust), consider this.

If the carriers WANT to get out of a line of business (and most of them do, at least the IFP portion), isn't it better to approve a merger/sale vs just letting them go away?

The smaller players like World, Celtic, etc. got out before Ocare hit it's stride. No big deal, they were minor players but they saw the writing on the wall.

Assurant was destined to follow suit and frankly I am surprised they even played in the Ocare market for the last 2 years.

Carrier compression is happening and will continue regardless of whether DOJ approves the mergers or not.