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A federal judge has blocked Aetna’s merger with Humana after finding that the health insurers’ $37 billion deal would leave seniors with fewer and costlier options for private Medicare coverage.
The merger risked irreparably harming competition within the Medicare Advantage market, and would hand Aetna and Humana a near monopoly across the nation, wrote U.S. District Court Judge John D. Bates in a verdict issued Monday. The ruling represents a major victory for the Justice Department, which under former president Barack Obama sued to halt the merger over concerns that it would further consolidate an already-concentrated private Medicare landscape. Between Aetna and Humana, the companies serve 4.5 million of the nearly 17 million seniors enrolled in Medicare Advantage.
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