The conceit that the five major commercial health insurers will consolidate to three seems to be dissolving, as four of those insurers called off a pair of mega-mergers on Tuesday. The immediate reasons were legal objections, but perhaps this retreat is a sign of hope for insurance markets. After 18 months of courtship among the Big Five starting in 2015, the outgoing ObamaJustice Department’s antitrust division sued to block the $34 billion Aetna-Humana tie-up as well as Anthem’s $48 billion acquisition of Cigna.

Source: Wall Street Journal February 15, 2017 00:22 UTC