Anthem, Aetna Sued by U.S. Seeking to Block Insurer Mergers

By David McLaughlin, Andrew Harris and Zachary Tracer, Bloomberg News

U.S. antitrust enforcers roundly rejected a pair of proposed deals that would consolidate the nation’s five biggest health insurers into three.

The Justice Department on Thursday sued to block two separate tie-ups — Anthem Inc.’s $48 billion takeover of rival health insurer Cigna Corp. and Aetna Inc.’s $37 billion bid for Humana Inc.— saying the deals would raise health-care costs and reduce choice for consumers.

“These mergers would fundamentally reshape the health insurance industry,” Attorney General Loretta Lynch said at a press conference in Washington. “They would leave much of the multi-trillion dollar health ...