Dive Brief:
- Former HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, who was among the chief creators of the Affordable Care Act, is worried about potential negative impacts from the two major mergers currently under consideration between Anthem and Cigna, and Aetna with Humana.
- Sebelius told the International Business Times mergers are typically associated with reduced competition and increased costs for consumers.
- The mergers could prove to be at odds with the ACA, she argued, because part of the health law's intent was to foster competition.
Dive Insight:
Sebelius' comments took the opposite stance from that of insurers who have argued that by scaling up and consolidating they will be able to pass on savings to consumers.
She countered that the creation of the health insurance marketplace and the work to draw in insurers was a major piece of the ACA's strategy. “Competition actually is a great price lever, and competition gives not only more choices to consumers but typically better prices to consumers,” she told the IBT.
Sebelius has a long history with insurance mergers and with Anthem in particular, the IBT also reported, noting she was behind a precedent-setting case in 2002 as Kansas insurance commissioner. She prevented Anthem from acquiring Kansas Blue Cross Blue Shield and then campaigned on the issue on her way to becoming governor, describing Anthem as “an aggressive, for-profit holding company whose primary objective is to beat its national competitors.”
Now Anthem, which has since acquired Wellpoint and further grown, is poised to become the largest insurer in the U.S. if approved to acquire Cigna.