Washington, D.C. – The American Economic Liberties Project today released the following statement in response to new reports that the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division plans to block the $13 billion acquisition of Change Healthcare, one of the nation’s largest physician reimbursement platforms, by UnitedHealth Group, the largest health insurer in the United States.

“By blocking this health care mega-merger, America’s antitrust leaders are taking a stand to stop the nation’s largest health insurance company from creating a vertically integrated, all-seeing health care giant,” said Krista Brown, Senior Policy Analyst at the American Economic Liberties Project. “The Department of Justice has rightly learned that data consolidation poses serious competitive threats. This merger would have allowed UnitedHealth to gather an extraordinary amount of sensitive health care data, further entrenching its monopoly power at the expense of patients, health care providers, and the resiliency of our entire health care system.”

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.