@ Reuters, Nov. 29

 U.S. health insurer Cigna (CI.N) is in talks to merge with peer Humana (HUM.N), a source familiar with the matter said on Wednesday, a deal that could exceed $60 billion in value and would be certain to attract fierce antitrust scrutiny.

The discussions come six years after regulators blocked mega-deals that would have consolidated the U.S. health insurance sector.

After U.S. courts upheld antitrust challenges in 2017, Cigna gave up on a $48 billion deal to acquire Anthem -- now known as Elevance Health. Losing the legal battle also caused Aetna -- now owned by pharmacy chain operator CVS Health (CVS.N) -- to abandon a $37 billion deal to acquire Humana.

Cigna and Humana are discussing a stock-and-cash deal that could be finalized by the end of the year, according to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported on the potential deal earlier on Wednesday. Humana declined to comment, while Cigna did not respond to requests for comment.

A merger would give the combined company more scale to rival bigger U.S. health insurance players UnitedHealth Group (UNH.N) and CVS Health [....]