A federal judge on Monday blocked the proposed $34 billion merger of health insurance giants Aetna and Humana on antitrust grounds.
The Justice Department under the Obama administration sued to stop the deal. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge John Bates said the merger would threaten competition, writing that "federal regulation would likely be insufficient to prevent the merged firm from raising prices or reducing benefits" and there is "valuable head-to-head competition between Aetna and Humana which the merger would eliminate."
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