Antitrust expert: Facts contradict arguments for insurance mega deals

The proposed mergers of health insurance giants Aetna and Humana and Anthem and Cigna are a bad deal for consumers, writes antitrust attorney David Balto, former policy director for the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Competition, blogging at The Huffington Post. “[A]s Senator Daniel Moynihan famously said, ‘everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts,’” Balto observes. “And here the facts…tell a simple truth – the mergers will make things worse as consumers currently have too few choices and pay too much. Health insurance markets are already highly concentrated, the mergers will result in higher premiums, and that harm will not be overcome by new entry.”