Shares of the insurance giant Aetna are looking awfully healthy this morning. Acquiring another insurer is likely providing a bit of a shot in the arm. It's the latest in a stream of health insurance mergers we've been charting — many of them happening for the same reasons.

The giant health insurer will acquire competitor Amerigroup Corp. for nearly $5 billion in a bid for more Medicaid business.

U.S. health insurance companies put in a tremendous amount of work for a health reform law that could have been vaporized. We speak to Matt Manders, U.S. head of Cigna, one of the country's biggest insurers, on the Supreme Court ruling.

Some say cheaper insurance could help startup owners focus on business.

If you are among the vast majority of Americans insured through your employer, the high court decision on health care probably won't change much.

UnitedHealth will adopt some parts of the Affordable Care Act regardless of what happens in the U.S. Supreme Court in the coming weeks. The insurer will continue to cover children up to age 26 and offer free preventive health care services.

A new study shows that cancer patients prefer riskier approaches with very low odds of success , over more successful ones that wouldn't extend their lives as long.

However the Supreme Court decides its ruling will push health-care reform to the top of the campaign debate. Health reform won't go away. The costs of the system are too high. The fiscal, economic and household pressures remain too great. Back to the future won't work.

There is a lot of theory motivating consumer-driven health plans like the HSA, much of it reminiscent of ideas promoted with the rise of the 401(k) retirement savings plan. Well, three decades later the 401(k) has turned out to be a deeply flawed pension. The same is likely to be true with consumer-driven healthcare plans.