Trial date set for Aetna and Humana merger

Aetna and Humana will go to trial on December 5, 2016, against the Department of Justice and their claim that a $37 billion merger is not in violation of anti-trust laws. The DOJ tried to convince the U.S. District Judge John D. Bates in Washington to delay the start of the trial until January, as Aetna has a self-imposed merger deadline of December 31, 2016.

Last month the Justice Department also sued to tie up the $48 billion merger between Anthem and Cigna. If both mergers went through the number of national health insurance companies would go from five to three, leaving many consumers with little choice and no competition.

Both the Aetna/Humana and Anthem/Cigna lawsuits were sent to Judge Bates, however, he handed off the Anthem/Cigna case to another judge as they needed a ruling by the end of the year.

The cases are U.S. v. Anthem Inc., 16-cv-1493, and U.S. v. Aetna Inc., 14-cv-1494, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).

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