The American Medical Association wants federal regulators to block two proposed mergers of four of the nation's largest health insurance providers, saying allowing the mergers would hurt competition in the marketplace.

The insurer Anthem has proposed purchasing Cigna while Aetna has made a bid to acquire Humana. If both deals go through, the mergers would shrink the number of large U.S. insurers from five to three, Reuters news service reported.

"Fostering competition, not consolidation, benefits American consumers through lower prices, better quality, and greater choice," AMA CEO James Madara said in a letter sent to U.S. antitrust regulators.

"Our analyses of the proposed health insurance mergers reveal significant concerns with respect to the impact on consumers in terms of health-care access, quality, and affordability," Madara added. http://bit.ly/1RRrBNk

America's Health Insurance Plans, which represents insurance companies, accused AMA of exaggerating the impact of the merger. AHIP spokeswoman Clare Krusing told The Hill AMA's stand on the mergers would have no impact on federal regulators.

"Their flawed data set has consistently been rebuked by leading economists and is a far cry from the reality of today's marketplace," she said. http://bit.ly/1Pqt4wj

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