Dive Brief:

• With mega-mergers dominating the U.S. health insurer market, the New York Times decided to take a serious look at what the M&A activity will mean for healthcare consumers, many of who get their coverage from their employers.
• If and when the deals get final approval, the U.S. healthcare insurance market will be dominated by three "colossal" insurers - Anthem, Aetna and United Healthcare (which is not part of the recent merger mania).
• The Times reports that consumer advocates, policy experts and former regulators say that what may be good for the insurers may not be good for consumers, especially in the wake of a similar frenzy of deal-making among hospitals and doctors’ groups.

Dive Insight:

According to Decision Resources Group, each would have tens of millions of people enrolled in their plans, offered largely through employers or government programs like Medicare. 

The insurers insist that combining companies will lead to lower prices and better care for their customers. They point to billions of dollars in efficiencies, though several experts told the Times that the jury is still out on that front.

The Times' Reed Abelson writes that for large employers that rely on national carriers to provide coverage to workers scattered across states, the pool of the five major entities would shrink to just three. To give their employees choice, for example, FedEx and Robert Half each offered both Anthem and Cigna to their employees.

Of course, the deals must pass muster with regulators first.