By Sarah Ferris - 07-21-16 10:12 AM EDT
The Obama administration on Thursday filed lawsuits against two multibillion-dollar health insurer mergers, warning the takeovers would drastically threaten competition nationwide.
In a landmark antitrust move, the Justice Department is suing to block both Anthem's $54 billion takeover of Cigna and Aetna's $37 billion bid to buy Humana.
The massive mergers would turn the nation's five biggest insurers into just three - a figure that was frequently mentioned by Attorney General Loretta Lynch as she announced the move Thursday.
"If allowed to proceed, these mergers would fundamentally reshape the health insurance industry," Lynch said at a briefing. "They would leave much of the multi-trillion-dollar industry in the hands of just three mammoth insurers."
"These mergers may indeed increase the profits of Aetna and Anthem, but it would so so at the expense of consumers," she added.
The cases remain separate, but would be decided by the same judge, she said.
The lawsuits are the culmination of more than a year of investigations by the Department of Justice into both mergers.
'We have no doubt these mergers would reduce competition over what it is today," William Baer, the principal deputy associate attorney general, said at the press conference.
Aetna and Anthem released statements just before the press conference Thursday, vowing to aggressively fight the federal government in court.
Anthem blasted the department for its "flawed analysis and misunderstanding of the dynamic, competitive and highly regulated healthcare landscape."
Aetna defended its merger by promising to result in a" broader choice of products, access to higher quality and more affordable care."
Updated 11:34 a.m.
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