Two of the state’s largest providers of health insurance, Tufts Health Plan and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, are merging, the companies announced Wednesday, a blockbuster deal that would create a medical powerhouse serving nearly 2.4 million members across New England.

The merger comes amid a period of consolidation and deal-making in the larger medical community, with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Lahey Hospital combining their hospital systems earlier this year, and health insurer Aetna agreeing to be acquired by the pharmacy chain CVS Health late last year. And Harvard Pilgrim itself had previously toyed with an unusual deal with the giant of Massachusetts medicine, Partners HealthCare, but the talks ended in 2018.


Tufts and Harvard Pilgrim previously sought to combine as well, back in 2011, going so far as to sign a nonbinding agreement that spelled out the broad terms of the deal, but they called it off after concluding the merging of the two operations would be too difficult.