The Trump Effect on Mega-Mergers

In the latest issue of Verden ViewPoint we discussed the likely impact of proposed health insurance company mega mergers. It remains to be seen how the election of Donald Trump could affect the deals between Anthem & Cigna, and Aetna & Humana but it’s entirely possible that a Trump administration would be pro merger.

With the Anthem/Cigna deal already before the courts and the Aetna/Humana trial scheduled for December, it’s fairly safe to assume that decisions in both cases will be made before Trump is set to take office in January but that likely won’t be the end of it.

Conservative Republican Senator Jeff Sessions was recently nominated by Trump to be Attorney General, and while we can’t know how Sessions would deal with antitrust cases, we do know that Trump has said he wants less government regulation of business.

It’s not clear how Mr. Sessions would have the department handle antitrust cases, but Mr. Trump has previously said that he wants “deep cuts” to government regulation of business. It’s doubtful that the DOJ would drop the cases but it’s also entirely possible that the losing party will appeal and that’s where Trump’s influence may come into play. Where a Trump administration will stand on antitrust issues can’t really be known until key positions in Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department are made but it’s not far fetched to think a Trump administration will be more lenient in terms of a settlement favoring a big insurer.