A unique facet of the merger process in health insurance is that the state’s insurance commissioner must approve all insurance mergers. While the laws empowering the insurance commissioners vary state-to-state, most states use a slight variation on the Model Insurance Holding Company System Regulatory Act. Much like the federal antitrust laws, the Model Insurance Act authorizes the state’s insurance commissioner to stop a merger when it would “substantially lessen competiti

Along with the Federal Government, the states are also empowered to enforce the antitrust laws. If a merger is deemed anticompetitive, the state’s attorney general can bring a lawsuit on behalf of the residents of their state under federal antitrust law. In mergers, state and federal enforcers typically work collectively to investigate the competitive effects. This allows the state to use the same investigative procedures used by the Department of Justice Antitrust Divisio

Under federal law, the Antitrust Division at the Department of Justice (DOJ) must challenge any merger that could “substantially lessen competition.” To enforce the antitrust laws, the DOJ is empowered by federal law to review all mergers of a certain size – transactions valued at more than $76.3 million. If the merging parties meet these requirements, they must file the merger with the DOJ and allow an initial 30-day review process to commence. During that time, the par

The Department of Justice Antitrust Division, States’ Attorneys General, and State Insurance Commissioners all have the same obligation to consumers – to make sure a proposed merger does not substantially reduce competition. To fulfill this mandate they have broad investigatory and remedial powers. At the end of the day, consumers must be fully protected from competitive harm – higher premiums, worse service, or less innovation. The merger review and investigation process i