Anthem and Cigna are apparently reaching a deal to create the nation's largest health insurer.
The takeover is to be announced Friday, according to CNBC, but what it means for more than 4,000 people who work at Cigna in Bloomfield and their families may not be clear at first.
It's hard to get a look at the outside of the Cigna bunker from off the property. It's been equally difficult for the Bloomfield town manager to find out what's going on behind the windows of the largest employer in town.
"You always live in hopes there'll be a reasonable transitional plan put into effect," said Phil Schenck.
If Cigna lowers the flag in Bloomfield, Schenck knows the impact would hurt restaurants, retailers and contractors not just in Bloomfield, but in towns in all directions.
"We're never going to lose Cigna. Cigna's not going to leave Connecticut," said West Hartford Town Manager Ron Van Winkle. "They have 4,200 highly skilled people that they're going to continue to employ, but there certainly will be some impact where individuals will find their job is not needed."
"For sale" signs could spring up, in a definite impact on the housing market, despite Connecticut's efforts to grow.
"These kinds of changes are moving in the other direction with those best jobs which are the ones we really want to grow," he said.
Bracing for disappointment from Cigna but hoping for the best, Schenck said, "I think the biggest surprise would be if the governor and the legislature got involved and lured the headquarters of Anthem from Indiana to Bloomfield. That would be my dream."
He said that's probably not going to happen but Bloomfield is part of an insurance cluster and that means something. Met Life said it was consolidating in Charlotte two years ago but it still has five or six hundred employees in Bloomfield.
