CADE updates study on mergers related to health insurance sector

On 11 January 2021, the Administrative Council for Economic Defense (CADE) released the 14th edition of its Review of CADE's Decisions, a publication about the authority's judgements. The new issue focuses on mergers in the industries of healthcare insurance plans, hospital services, and diagnostic procedures. The document is an updated version of a study carried out in 2018 on mergers and acquisitions that involved industries that make up the supply chain of the private health insurance sector.

The social and economic relevance of this sector called for new considerations at its dynamics and on how CADE has responded to its transformations. The document indicates that private health insurance plans surpassed 47 million beneficiaries in 2020, whereas dental coverage reached 27 million users. In the past four years, the sector saw an enormous increase in merger numbers, with CADE reviewing 126 mergers involving these three industries.

The publication, divided into two sections, analyses mergers and acquisitions in the industries of private health insurance plans, hospital services, and diagnostic procedures.

The first part of the document presents the relevance of the healthcare sector for the Brazilian economy, the distribution of its services across distinct Brazilian regions, and an overview of the three industries and their largest business groups. The second part shows CADE's positions and decisions about different aspects of merger reviews regarding industries that make up the supply chain of the private health insurance sector.

The Department of Economic Studies of CADE has been publishing its series of Reviews of CADE's Decisions since 2015. The publication aims at consolidating, systematising, and publicising the authority's case law related to a specific market, considering economic and competitive matters.

The study is available here (Portuguese only).