With recent news of the proposed Aetna/Humana, Anthem/Cigna, and Centene/Health Net mergers, a number of stakeholders have raised questions about consolidation’s impact on the competitiveness of health care markets. For these proposed deals, we estimated the degree of payer consolidation post-merger across the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
If the mergers are finalized, Georgia, Connecticut, and Colorado could potentially experience 40 percent or higher increases in commercial insurance concentration (Table 1). Kansas, Alaska, Iowa, and Ohio could experience 60 percent or higher increases in Medicare Advantage concentration (Table 3). The mergers are not expected to heavily affect Medicaid managed care markets. We also recognize and discuss below how concentrated markets may still experience healthy consumer-benefiting competition from established and new entrants.
Understanding payer concentration trends and potential future scenarios will inform policy and decision makers as they discuss the implications of consolidation and competition within the United States health care system.
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