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US: Anthem to fight for merger

By  |  July 28, 2016

Anthem has no plans of backing away from its plan to buy Cigna in the face of federal opposition, and the Anthem CEO Joseph Swedish said that his company plans to “run out the litigation as long as it takes,” expecting a trial to begin around October.

The health insurer told analysts on July 26 that it is preparing to fight the government’s lawsuit to block its deal, and the company said its participation in the government’s health insurance exchanges may be at stake.

The U.S. Department of Justice sued on July 21 to block both Anthem’s deal and another proposed insurer combination, Aetna’s $34-billion purchase of Humana saying that the deals would reduce competition and raise prices on the exchanges and in other market segments.

These insurance mergers would reduce the nation’s five largest insurers to three.

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