CVS Is Said to Be in Talks to Buy Aetna in Landmark Acquisition

A classic "Man bites dog" scenario. But the drug companies will prevail as long as they continue to have the Congressional politicians in their pocket.

How incestuous. It's been apparent for a long time that monopolies are apparently legal now. These monster mergers big foot competition, smother small businesses to death, gouge us and kill creativity. And that this is CVS and Aetna (2 of my least favorite companies), I worry about healthcare pricing and quality as much as Trump's destructive meddling and lies that are cynically undercutting quality and coverage for those who need it most. These are bleak times indeed.

I can remember another company that grew and grew over the decades and catapulted itself into oblivion... Sears. You can get too big for your britches like Ma Bell and others. Of course that was when we had a government that enforced laws breaking up monopolies who might corner markets and control prices by squashing competition, once a favorite of both Parties.

These giant mergers make me wonder where the limit is on monopolies. What happens to CVS competition if they buy Aetna? Do they also have to buy a company to compete?

As a healthcare provider in the Aetna network, I am concerned about this potential merger. I suspect Aetna will make it even more difficult than it already is to get paid for my services. I am likely to drop out of the Aetna network if they continue to make it worse for healthcare providers. They just forced me to go electronic and now I cannot access a human customer service rep for questions and to deal with problems. Their letter says "we're here to help" and then says I have to send email or call other third party companies to deal with questions. It's terrible. I feel sorry for my Aetna patients but I am already working 7 days a week just to break even. They don't get paid for all the hours of administrative work I have to do just to get payment for the clinical hours I did. I am likely to stop dealing with all insurance companies because the other companies are even worse than Aetna....

very American: heath care is a business, subject to business decisions and business logic. it is not about health, or care - it is about money. cue the death panels and drooling Republicans. when will we get it together to join the civilized world?

Right. “...a more seamless approach to healthcare costs.” A more seamless approach to price gouging is what they probably have in mind. The shareholders will be pleased.

So, which pharmacies and health insurance providers are we expecting Amazon to acquire as they build their national offering? This is a catalyst that will facilitate greater consolidation in the pharmacy and health insurance industries. Which means greater monopoly pricing of drug prices and health insurance policies. Winners: Drug companies, Health Insurance companies, Wall Street Bankers Losers: AMERICAN PEOPLE

The offer on the table is for 66 billion. Who would have thought that with the health insurers crying poverty and inability to cover health risks under the ACA for poor and many middle class persons with pre existing conditions that a health care "provider" like Aetna would be worth 66 billion. They must be figuring that with Trump stripping all sick people out of the health care market, that market (for health people only) will become highly profitable. God save the rest of us.

CVS already has a conflict of interest as a PBM.......ostensibly helping employers control costs via negotiations with big Pharma, all the while also selling you the products. The claim is that their massive economic buying power results in the ability to negotiate the biggest discounts. The problem is, when the retail price of the drug can be anything, the discounts can be manipulated to portray "savings". With CVS owning Aetna, they become another middleman....now effectively controlling access to medical care as well as prescription drugs, and needing to increase profits by 8-12% per year to preserve shareholder value. Anyone else think that we have a monopoly problem here?

American healthcare brought to you by gouging plutocrats and Wall Street liars Get your serving of Soylent Green before it is all gone

The same CVS that spent 13.4 million to make sure that the DEA bill immunized pharmacies for overprescribing opioids.

The real monster here is not CVS and or Aetna. And it is bigger than Single Payer. The real monster is that soon a handful of companies like Amazon will know more about you than you know about yourself. They will know what clothes you buy, what movies you watch, your medical condition ... and they will use that to profit from you. Big Brother is not just a government issue but a Global, Plutocrat Corporate issue. I recently terminated my Facebook and Instragram accounts. I will make an effort to shop local and focus on small business owned shoppes. Because at the rate we are going we will be at the mercy and manipulation of Big Box stores owned by Big Data companies.

This is awful. CVS engages in ultra aggressive marketing by phone, email and text, so much so that I transferred my two measly prescriptions to a grocery pharmacy. Aetna is my secondary insurer, and I will change if this merger goes through.

A monster to tell us what aspirin to take; what doctor to see; possibly how to dispose of the body.

Looks like I get my scrips at Walgreens

just 1 more reason to get single payer/ medicare for all for our citizens. and soon.

Ridiculous. This would only further blur the line between a supermarket model of profiting and a need for more specialized, cost conscious management of health care and insurance. Imagine the future Congressional hearing with the CEO of CVS when the company’s caught in the kind of scandalous profit-seeking like Wells Fargo. “Hey, what do I know about health insurance?”

This is just another example of consumers losing at the hands of a giant corporation. My health insurance forced me to get my prescriptions from CV

Isn't this a conflict of interest? At a base level, Aetna profits when people are healthy (and thus don't have to use premium dollars towards insured medical expenses). CVS profits when people are sick and buy their services and products. I'm sure I'm underestimating the relationship between insurers and pharmacies. But I wonder if this is ethically responsible?

Consumers will be the ones to suffer for this. My health plan dictates that I fill all my prescriptions at CV

Just when you thought the US healthcare system couldn't get any worse...For a taste of how healthcare would look under CVS just give one of their pharmacies a call and try to get somebody on the phone.

There could be anticompetitive effects in all three of the highly concentrated markets involved in this proposed vertical merger.

In the scandalous revelations in the recent Washington Post and 60 Minutes report on legislation pushed by industry lobbyists to stifle the DEA's battle with Opioid prescription distribution, CVS was named as a nefarious player. Today's article surmises that one motivation for this merger is for CVS to have more leverage in negotiations with the equally nefarious drug companies. Of course this will also give them much more leverage with Congress as well, and the chance to sponsor more legislation to strip our government of the ability to protect our health and welfare. CVS will fill the prescriptions, and their insurance arm will pay them for it. What could go wrong?

...and if the country goes true single-payer healthcare, the merged company goes down the tubes, leaving just a pharmacy again. Dumb.

It looks like we're on our way to a single-payer healthcare system American style - run for profit by venture capitalists.