The American Medical Association conducted an analysis that shows two insurance company mega mergers, Anthem's acquisition of Cigna and Aetna's acquisition of Humana, world eliminate competition in insurance markets for 24 states.
"With the existing competition in health insurance markets already at alarmingly low levels, federal and state antitrust officials have powerful reasons to block harmful mergers and foster a more competitive marketplace that will operate in patients' best interests," said AMA President Andrew W. Gurman, MD.
Here are five things to know:
1. The Anthem-Cigna merger diminishes competition in 121 metropolitan areas in 14 states. Those states include:
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Georgia
Indiana
Kentucky
Maine
Missouri
Nevada
New Hampshire
New York
Ohio
Virginia
Wisconsin
2. There are nine states working to block the Anthem-Cigna merger and the states without an antitrust position on the merger are Indiana, Kentucky, Nevada, Ohio and Wisconsin.
3. The Aetna-Humana merger would eliminate competition in 51 metropolitan areas in 15 states, including:
Arizona
Florida
Georgia
Illinois
Indiana
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Mississippi
Ohio
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Wisconsin
West Virginia
4. There are four states working to block the Aetna-Humana merger and states without an antitrust position in the merger include: Arizona, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
5. There is an absence of health insurer competition in 71 percent of the metropolitan areas studied; in 40 percent of those metropolitan areas there is one insurer with at least 50 percent share of the commercial health insurance market.
6. There are 14 states where one insurer has at least 50 percent share of the commercial health insurance market:
Alabama
Delaware
Hawaii
Illinois
Indiana
Louisiana
Michigan
Nebraska
North Carolina
North Dakota
Rhode Island
South Carolina
Vermont
Wyoming