Hillary Clinton Campaign Press Release - Hillary for America's Statement on the DOJ Lawsuit Against Health Insurance Mergers

Hillary Clinton believes we need to make sure that health insurance in America is available and affordable for all. This means fostering fair competition among insurers, and throughout the health care industry, to reduce premium and out-of-pocket costs that are too much of a burden for working families. Too often, hardworking Americans are facing sky-high costs while insurance companies see growing profits.

That's why today, Hillary for America welcomes the Department of Justice's decision to sue to block two large health insurance mergers: that of Aetna and Humana, as well as that of Cigna and Anthem. Today, Hillary for America Senior Policy Advisor Ann O'Leary stated,

"We applaud the Department of Justice's decision to sue to block the Aetna-Humana and Anthem-Cigna mergers. When these deals were first announced last year, Hillary Clinton called for careful scrutiny and said that she was 'very skeptical of the claim that consumers will benefit from them.' Now, the Department of Justice has reached the same conclusion. Hillary will continue to fight to reduce health costs and strengthen antitrust enforcement to prevent corporations from gaining too much market power at the expense of fair competition and harming hard-working Americans and consumers. She will also work to strengthen the health insurance marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act so that more families have access to even more plans with lower premiums and out of pocket costs."

Throughout this campaign, Hillary has taken a strong stand against excessive corporate concentration – a stance that is increasingly shared by leaders throughout the party, and reflected in a strong statement in the party's platform. Hillary believes it's good for our economy when companies prosper by innovating, creating new products, and investing in their workers. But in too many instances, that's not what's happening. Large corporations are concentrating control over markets – and rather than offering better products for lower prices, they are using their power to raise prices, limit choices for consumers, lower wages for workers, and hold back competition from startups and small businesses.

As President, Hillary will take on corporate concentration. She will bolster antitrust enforcement, appoint regulators who will aggressively enforce the laws we have on the books against anticompetitive practices and mergers, strengthen these laws where necessary, and build on the President's recent Executive Order to increase competition and take on concentration administration-wide. Hillary's belief that we need to empower Americans when businesses, including insurance companies, unfairly try to take advantage of them is at the heart of her work. She will continue to call on insurance companies to "commit to passing on savings and efficiencies to consumers as lower premiums and out-of-pocket costs," which is just part of her overall plan to reduce health care costs. In a Hillary Clinton Administration, the executive branch will protect hardworking Americans, not companies concentrating power.