Harvard Pilgrim and Tufts Health Plan announce plans to merge

Aug. 14--Two New England health insurance providers, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Tufts Health Plan, want to merge.

The combined insurer would be one of the largest in New England, covering about 2.4 million people in the region.

The merger plan must still be approved by state and federal regulators, including the New Hampshire Insurance Department, which opposed a 2017 proposal to merge health insurance companies Anthem and Cigna. Those companies eventually dropped the bid to merge.

Tufts Health Plan and Harvard Pilgrim are among the largest health insurers in New Hampshire, covering people who get health insurance through their jobs and providing plans for people on Medicare, Medicaid and those who buy insurance independently.

Both companies are based in Massachusetts, but Harvard Pilgrim has a large office in Manchester.

The boards of directors for both insurers voted unanimously to approve the merger. The new group will be steered by a board of directors made up of both Tufts and Harvard Pilgrim board members, according to a news release.

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