The drumbeat of industry consolidation got louder this week as shareholders for health insurers Anthem and Cigna approved a merger. It becomes the second major health care merger to move toward final regulator approval within the past two months.
The first major combination featured Aetna’s purchase of Humana, a deal valued at some $40 billion. Anthem shareholders and board said OK to cutting a check for $54 billion so that Anthem could swallow up Cigna.