“Many physicians are just going to wear out, as insurance companies bring them through this machinery and deny access to those off-label therapies. This is truly life altering for patients in a direct way,” she said.

Some industry analysts, such as Marianne Udow-Phillips, director of the Center for Healthcare Research and Transformation at the University of Michigan, have come out in support of the proposed mergers.

Udow-Phillips told USA Today that the mergers could drive down the cost of health care by giving insurance companies increased leverage to negotiate with care providers.

Another supporter of the mergers is Jon Kaplan, senior partner with the Boston Consulting Group. “There is little doubt consolidation will give insurers greater bargaining power with which to negotiate better rates with providers. It will also reduce administrative overhead. Aetna estimates, for example, that the Humana merger could produce approximately $1.25 billion in annual cost savings by 2018,” wrote Kaplan on CNBC.com.

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