The Connecticut Department of Insurance is one of the 15 states that has approved the Aetna-Humana merger, in a confidential process that didn’t include a public hearing.
Department spokeswoman Donna Tommelleo, who did not say when the department gave approval, noted that Humana has almost no customers in the state, with its only market Medi-gap plans. Combining Aetna and Humana wouldn’t affect competition locally, she said.
The Department of Justice is still evaluating whether Aetna-Humana would have negative consequences for consumers around the country.
Earlier this week, the Missouri Department of Insurance released a preliminary order that stated if federal regulators approve the merger, the state would block the combined company from selling certain insurance plans. The department said the merger would have anticompetitive effects in more than half of Missouri’s 114 counties.
The companies have 30 days to submit a plan, though an extension may be allowed. Missouri cannot block the merger, but has control over how the combined company would operate in its state.
The Anthem-Cigna merger, however, is still under review in Connecticut. In that case, the state has both the responsibility to evaluate the competitive impact and the impact to Cigna after it is absorbed into Anthem.
The department can look at how “asset sales, consolidation or liquidation” would materially affect Cigna’s business operations, how the corporate structure would change, and how it might affect the policies Cigna currently offers.
It can reject, or ask for conditions on the merger, if it believes the company’s plans “are unfair and unreasonable to policyholders of the domestic company and not in the public interest.”
The department is still receiving submissions from Anthem and Cigna, and will hold a public hearing before making its determination.
Seventeen Connecticut legislators sent a letter to the state’s insurance commissioner this week, pushing for a thorough review of the merger and details about how competitiveness and health care costs could be impacted.
The lawmakers also requested multiple public hearings.
