The CEOs of health insurers Aetna and Anthem defended their mega-merger deals before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust on Tuesday, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Aetna is seeking to acquire Humana in a $37 billion deal, and Anthem aims to take over Cigna in a $54.2 billion transaction.
The mergers have been strongly opposed by hospitals across the nation. Earlier this month, American Hospital Association President and CEO Rick Pollack outlined some of the potential negative effects of the deals before the House Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law.
The mega-mergers "would leave consumers with fewer — and no doubt — more expensive options for coverage" and "diminish the insurers' willingness to be innovative partners with providers and consumers to transform healthcare," Mr. Pollack said.
However, on Tuesday, Aetna CEO Mark T. Bertolini and Anthem CEO Joseph R. Swedish argued that markets would remain competitive if they completed their mergers, with each leader making the case for their transaction.
Mr. Bertolini said "robust competition will remain in the Medicare market" if the Aetna-Humana deal goes through because just 8 percent of Medicare beneficiaries would be covered by the combined entity, according to the report.
Mr. Swedish said the Anthem-Cigna deal wouldn't have a negative effect on competition because the two companies have "very limited and, in most cases, no market overlap."
Although both deals are still in the antitrust review process, the companies expect the transactions to close in the second half of 2016.
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