CVS has responded to Amazon threats by agreeing to buy Aetna $AET for about $69 billion, creating a drugstore with insurance giant. Rumors have swirled recently that Amazon’s $AMZN next segment of American society it intends to be gobble up is healthcare.
CVS has responded to Amazon threats by agreeing to buy Aetna for about $69 billion, creating a drugstore with insurance giant. Rumors have swirled recently that Amazon’s $AMZN next segment of American society it intends to be gobble up is healthcare. The deal would also fit nicely in with the CVS Medical clinics attracting and keeping more clients with a streamlined insurance options.
This CVS-Aetna deal potentially could reshape the American health care industry, at a time when partisan politics have effectively sabotaged rationality and objective discussion about the individual in the United States. The deal would see the drugstore giant combine with one of the United States’ biggest health insurers. Reports from WSJ and the NYT sources say the terms of the deal are that CVS will pay about $207 a share, including $145 a share in cash, with the remainder in newly issued CVS stock.
With the US senate trying to push through tax reform and Congress at an impasse over the future of the Affordable Care Act this would be seen as a bold move by some and by others one to attempt to take control of the companies’ own destiny. What is clear is employers and consumers are becoming increasingly weighed down by rising medical costs and prescription drugs with existing legislation.
The deal would also enable CVS to maintain Aetna’s client base away from Amazon with it’s easier options from an aggressive cost cutting Amazon. What CVS is trying to do is other services and comfort over cost cutting. However the shear size of the transaction may also deliver the potenial for similar cost cutting also. Think along along the lines of Costco now being cheaper than $AMZN products in the majority of cases.
The deal would also help CVS competition from Americ’as largest heatlcare insuruer UnitedHealth Group $UNH which alsomanages a large pharmacy benefits business, and it runs doctor practices and clinics.
The deal must gain regulator approval, which as we know in America that is not an easy process, particualy in such a hot political button as healthcare.