One down, one to go?

Now, someone’s blinked:

“Aetna And Humana Call Off Merger After Court Decision“

Turns out, the annulment didn’t come cheaply, either:

“Aetna announced it would pay Humana a $1 billion fee for backing out of the agreement”

And lest you think that was a major windfall for the latter, think again:

“Humana announced about $370 million of that would be paid as taxes.”

Nice little chunk-o-change for Uncle Sugar.

Again, although I don’t really have a horse in this race, I’m not terribly disappointed: more carriers should mean more competition, which is generally a good thing, no?