Today, Anthem (Blue Cross Blue Shield operator in many states) announced it way buying all the shares of Cigna. This comes about a month after Aetna announced it would buy out Humana. We now have about three major health insurers (i.e. Anthem/Cigna, Aetna/Humana, and UnitedHealthCare). It is said the driving force behind it is the Affordable Care Act because it has both increased the number of customers and decreased the allowable profit margins (if I recall correctly, if insurers less than 80% of premiums on actual medical care, they must issue members a partial refund of their premiums). As a result, the name of the game is consolidation. We might see regulators step in and either stop the mergers and go all Sherman on them, or realize that the nature of the ACA has made consolidation the natural evolution of the ACA and perhaps we will one day actually just see the (federal and/or state) government either wholly or partially (and directly, as in perhaps directly paying providers and/or letting all people choose insurance agents a la Medicare and paying all citizens' premiums from general revenue funds but still not being the actual payer for services and care ) take over the health care industry. What do you see is the future of health insurance in this country? Will health insurance naturally evolve from monopolistic competition to oligopoly to a natural monopoly? How would you reform the health insurance industry? http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-24/anthem-strikes-deal-to-buy-cigna-for-more-than-48-billion
