The biggest health insurance lobby in Washington downplayed the Obama administration’s attempt to halt two big mergers between insurers.
Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Thursday that allowing the merger of Humana and Aetna and merger of Anthem and Humana to go forward would dramatically reduce competition in insurance markets and hurt consumers.
But America’s Health Insurance Plans, the leading insurance lobbying trade group, downplayed the decision to sue and said the mergers could help consumers.
“Today’s announcement is a step in an ongoing process,” said Clare Krusing, spokeswoman for the group. “Mergers among health plans can deliver significant benefits by combining complementary areas of expertise to ensure consumers get the best value for their healthcare dollars.”
The deal would shrink the number of major insurers from five to three.
Krusing placed the blame for the mergers on hospitals and doctors’ offices merging together, which itself is a response to the Affordable Care Act’s requirements to link Medicare payments to quality of care.
She also blamed the “soaring cost of pharmaceuticals driven in part by anti-competitive pricing tactics.”
