Megadeal players blocked from changing health insurance – for now
The four companies involved in two blocked mega takeover deals are now pondering their futures and still have the potential to reshape the US health insurance market with the huge cash war chests they had amassed for the transactions. Judges stopped Anthem's $48bn plan to buy Cigna and Aetna's bid for Humana, citing fears the deals would narrow competition and raise prices for consumers. Further takeovers may be possible if a Trump administration loosens antitrust laws, observers have said, although it is possible the companies will use their cash hoards for share buybacks.
After 18 months of courtship and court cases, two massive deals that would have reshaped the U.S. health insurance industry have both been declared dead, blocked by judges who said they’d do unacceptable harm to competition in the industry.

Now, the companies are right back where they started. Anthem Inc.’s $48 billion deal to buy Cigna Corp. was blocked by a federal judge late Wednesday, weeks after another judge halted Aetna Inc.’s bid for Humana Inc. Anthem said it’ll appeal, and Aetna and Humana have said they’re still deciding where to appeal.