Humana could spend $1B for Medicare deals

Humana is willing to spend $1 billion on acquisitions or mergers, allowing it to expand into Medicare, reported Bloomberg. "We could do $1 billion-plus deals if we wanted to," Humana CEO Michael McCallister said in an interview at the World Economic Forum's conference in Davos, Switzerland. Humana, which McCallister said has capacity for something of that size, has acquired a number of small plans and now is looking to expand into Medicare. That could mean Humana is considering purchasing larger Medicare plans, such as Universal American, Coventry Health Care or Health Net, all of which have market values over $1 billion. "The market thinks there needs to be more consolidation in the managed-care area, and it might be right," McCallister said. "There are a lot of small players with 20,000 to 150,000 members, and they will continue to be bought up." Article