Lawmakers Target the Power of Health Insurance Giants

After years of rampant expansion into nearly every corner of the health care system, the biggest insurance conglomerates are confronting new efforts to break up their businesses.

Arguing that the companies have become too dominant, Arkansas and Tennessee passed laws that aim to prevent the companies from managing prescription benefits and running retail and mail-order pharmacies. Lawmakers in other states and in Washington have proposed similar restrictions.

In response, the three companies — UnitedHealth Group, CVS Health and Cigna — are fiercely fighting back. They and their allies have filed lawsuits, deployed lobbyists, pestered customers with texts and blanketed the airwaves with advertisements.

Hours after Gov. Bill Lee of Tennessee, a Republican, signed the new law in May, CVS sued in federal court to block it. In a matter of weeks, UnitedHealth, Cigna’s Express Scripts and a trade association for the companies all followed with additional lawsuits against the legislation.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/08/business/health-insurance-cvs-unitedhealth-breakup.html