During a two-hour hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, antitrust regulators vowed to closely analyze healthcare's two biggest mergers: the one between Aetna and Humana and the one between Anthem and Cigna, according to Insider Louisville.
William Baer, assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division, called the mergers "transformational ... in a number of markets," according to the report.
"[It's] a game changer that demands merger law enforcement officials to scrutinize very, very carefully to make sure we aren't making a mistake in which shareholders benefit and the consumers pay the cost," Assistant Attorney General Baer said.
He emphasized that the mergers will be evaluated together. "Whenever you have two major transactions in an already concentrated industry occurring roughly at the same time, one needs to look at the interaction between the two transactions and look down the road," he said, according to the report. "It also affects one's view of whether or not one or both transactions are really fixable, because it could be a game changer."
Specifically, the DOJ will analyze how the mergers will impact the availability of care to consumers, the cost to consumers and employers, and competition throughout various markets, according to Assistant Attorney General Baer.
However, U.S. Senators remained skeptical of potential consolidation during the meeting.
"The merger policy of our nation has simply failed," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), according to the report. "Consumers have been hit by a tsunami of consolidation, with the same economic effects as a natural disaster tsunami has on people who are in its way."
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), voiced concerns as well. "We often talk about firms being too big to fail," she said, according to the report. "A question for modern antitrust enforcement is whether some mergers are too big to fix."