Walmart Looks To Acquire Insurer Humana

Walmart moving toward insurance

According to the Wall Street Journal, Walmart is in preliminary talks to buy the insurer Humana.

Walmart started to sink their feet into healthcare by first being a drugstore operator, and also operating a few retail clinics. The retail giant hopes to take advantage of Humana’s Medicare Advantage business as more Baby-Boomers age, and become eligible for the program.

Will they be susccessful?

Though the Wall Street Journal did not disclose how much the deal would be worth. It is important to note Walmart is one of the nation’s largest private employers. With more than 1.5 million workers and a market value of $260 billion, this can give Walmart the insurance pool to offer affordable care. Humana is not far behind, with a market value of $37 billion, with 52,000 employees, they are one of the country’s largest insurers.

They are not the only major retailer getting into insurance.

If the Walmart and Humana deal shows to be true, they would be joining the series of other deals that would bring retailers into the healthcare space. Last year, CVS agreed to buy Aetna for $69 billion and earlier this month, and Cigna agreed to buy Express Scripts Holding for $67 billion.

Keep coming back for more updates on this possible merger.