Feel the Bern: Presidential race throws cold water on health insurance mega-mergers

The U.S. health insurance market, roiled by transformative deals in recent years, will likely face a lull in major deal activity in 2020 while firms await critical federal election outcomes, industry executives said. Looking to diversify, gain scale and efficiencies, pharmacy giant CVS Health in late 2018 closed a $70 billion acquisition of health insurance major Aetna. Cigna followed shortly with the $54 billion purchase of pharmacy benefits major Express Scripts.