"With respect to Cigna and Anthem ...

... they are both big players in the employer space but my understanding is they don't have a lot of overlap in terms of the states they are in. And the combination would create more of a national reach that is a potential good thing for employers operating in many states. By and large, our view is that scale for the sake of scale might end up just raising costs and doesn't help employer plans. But scale that is used as leverage to accelerate the movement to value-based purchasing, better care coordination and population health management is what is needed. And to the extent that an insurance merger enables that would be helpful to employers."

— Steve Wojcik, vice president, public policy at the National Business Group on Health, told AIS's Health Plan Week.