American Medical Association says Humana takeover by Aetna would reduce health-insurance competition in Kentucky
“The AMA, no friend of the insurance industry to begin with, is stepping up the already mounting pressure on Aetna as it attempts to buy Humana, and [on] Anthem, which is trying to take over Cigna,” Bruce Japsen reports for Forbes magazine. “The U.S. Justice Department in July sued to block both deals, saying they would hurt competition and raise prices for consumers. . . . The insurers deny the AMA’s contention and are challenging the government’s lawsuits.”
Across the various forms of insurance, the AMA analysis saw a threat to overall competition in the Louisville, Lexington and Elizabethtown markets. It saw a threat to the HMO market in the Clarksville, Tenn., market, which includes the Hopkinsville area. It saw lesser threats in the Evansville, Ind., and Huntington, W.Va., markets, which include parts of Kentucky.