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Anthem set to announce deal for Cigna this week: sources

The deal would follow Aetna Inc's $37 billion agreement earlier this month to acquire Humana Inc, potentially reducing the number of major U.S. insurance companies from five to three and attracting antitrust scrutiny. Most issues that were preventing Anthem and Cigna from reaching a deal, such as price and the role of Cigna Chief Executive David Cordani, have been resolved, the people said. Anthem has slightly improved on its previous cash and stock offer of $184 per share and will pay somewhere near $187 per share for Cigna, one of the people said.

Despite Obamacare, gap health insurance market explodes

By Beth Pinsker NEW YORK (Reuters) – Despite the promise of coverage through the U.S. Affordable Care Act (ACA), the number of people applying for non-compliant, short-term health insurance policies was up more than 100 percent in 2014, according to new data available from companies who broker these policies. This type of health insurance is exactly the kind that the ACA, known commonly as Obamacare, was supposed to upgrade. The government does not count these gap plans as qualifying health insurance, so people who have them are subject to penalties for being uninsured.

US scientists report promising new melanoma vaccines

Experimental tailor-made vaccines targeting melanoma patients' individual genetic mutations have given encouraging preliminary results, researchers have said. The clinical test on three patients with this form of aggressive skin cancer in an advanced stage is unprecedented in the United States. The vaccines appear to boost the number and diversity of T-cells, which are key to the human immune system and attack tumors, researchers said in a report published Thursday in the journal Science. Melanoma accounts for around five percent of all new cancer cases diagnosed in the United States, but that proportion is rising.