California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones on Thursday pleaded to the Department of Justice to block the planned merger between insurance uber-giants Cigna and Anthem.
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Dave Jones, who as insurance commissioner in California does not have authority to approve the deal, said he believes his recommendation will hold weight with USA antitrust regulators examining the acquisition.
CT officials on Thursday voted to launch a formal ethics review of Democratic Gov. Dan Malloy’s move to appoint a former Cigna lobbyist to lead the state’s antitrust review of Cigna’s controversial merger.
“We do not believe that the California Department of Insurance’s opinion is based on the true merits of this transaction”, the company said in a statement.
The vote to launch the ethics review came on the same day California regulators announced they will recommend that the Department of Justice block the merger. Jones has consistently challenged large insurers as a consumer advocate. He says Anthem would control more than half the health insurance market in 28 counties.
This suggests Anthem would gain a monopoly share of the market, Jones said.
Anthem’s shares were up 1.4 percent to $132.41 in late afternoon trading.
Some big employers nationwide have raised similar worries about having fewer competitors to choose from.
“This merger would create the nation’s largest health insurer, which could have a significant impact on California’s consumers, businesses and healthcare marketplace”, she added.
Common Cause Connecticut said it “questions the ability of Ms. Wade to conduct a review of the merger of Anthem and Cigna in an unbiased way”. The two sides bickered publicly during negotiations last summer before finally reaching a deal.
Ms. Wade stated in her September letter to the Office of State Ethics that she and her husband had put their assets into a blind trust and that her husband’s unvested Cigna stock would also go into the blind trust when it is vested.
This story will be updated.
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Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service.
