The case at the SCOTUS which will be resolved this week re: Obamacare subsidies?
I think it will be 5-4, in favor of Obamacare, with Roberts siding with the Libs again, maybe 6-3 with Kennedy. Thoughts?Has anyone noticed that the 5 major insurance companies are all playing the acquisition game, with the latest being Anthem and Cigna? The BIG 5 will become the BIG 3. All of them continue to talk about Obamacare and tougher rules, more covered services, ceiling on profits, increase in taxes, and capturing the continued enrollment increases. Growing bigger allows them to negotiate better prices. Acquisition 101.
I think it will be 5-4, in favor of Obamacare, with Roberts siding with the Libs again, maybe 6-3 with Kennedy.
Thoughts?
Anthem buying Cigna may survive antitrust scrutiny but if there is another consolidation among the top five – reducing the already extraordinarily concentrated market to 2 or 3 players – no way the DOJ and FTC will let that happen.
The Blue Cross Association already operates as a cartel and what you describe as “negotiating better prices” is really price fixing and market allocation. The Blues are the only game in town in many places and are now being sued for civil antitrust violations.
Now here is what no one in the media seemed to grasp when the Anthem bid was announced. Guess who owns the largest Blue Cross company? Anthem. That’s right- if Blue Cross of California is your insurer, you actually are an Anthem customer.
So Anthem is already being sued by David Boies and company for antitrust violations without even considering the affect of adding Cigna.
The complexities of this one boggle the mind – a cartel member forming an even larger cartel.
Meanwhile, Jack’s beloved Republican health care plan may spring back into existence like a lurching Frankenstein after the subsidies are upheld with the mandates eliminated. But that means the underwriting pool is filled with sick people – disaster for the insurance companies.
Of course, Anthem’s CEO said “we’re not worried about antitrust problems.” He apparently does not get his news from Comcast whose CEO lamely said the same thing
Well of course regulators will look at any large deal(s) among insurers. But do you honestly think the administration will oppose such mergers after getting support from them? Haven't there been hospital mergers the past few years? I didn't hear any chirping from the DOJ.
Maybe, just maybe, you could put some of this merger mania squarely on Obamacare. If you constrain the amount of profit a company can generate, then logic dictates you look at other ways. You don't get smaller. You get bigger. You try for scale, efficiencies, anything to drive higher margins. I just wish I was smart enough to buy hospitals and insurers companies after Obamacare was passed. All these companies clearly signaled mergers were going to happen.
You do realize Cigna already cited anti-trust risks. But maybe that was just a tactic to drive Anthem's price higher. Do you know how much the Cigna CEO will make if he is pushed out as a result of the merger? $58M. The Aetna CEO would get $131M. Even for me, these are just obscene numbers.
Maybe you're just pissed that you decided to put your family's inheritance into copper, and not colonoscopies.
The Blue Cross Association already operates as a cartel and what you describe as “negotiating better prices” is really price fixing and market allocation. The Blues are the only game in town in many places and are now being sued for civil antitrust violations.
Now here is what no one in the media seemed to grasp when the Anthem bid was announced. Guess who owns the largest Blue Cross company? Anthem. That’s right- if Blue Cross of California is your insurer, you actually are an Anthem customer.
So Anthem is already being sued by David Boies and company for antitrust violations without even considering the affect of adding Cigna.
The complexities of this one boggle the mind – a cartel member forming an even larger cartel.
Meanwhile, Jack’s beloved Republican health care plan may spring back into existence like a lurching Frankenstein after the subsidies are upheld with the mandates eliminated. But that means the underwriting pool is filled with sick people – disaster for the insurance companies.
Of course, Anthem’s CEO said “we’re not worried about antitrust problems.” He apparently does not get his news from Comcast whose CEO lamely said the same thing.