WellCare CEO Ken Burdick and Chief Financial Officer Drew Asher are expected to take newly created senior positions at Centene.

The combined company will have a Medicaid business in 22 states, covering more than 11 million lives, according to Jefferies data. That represents a more than 50 percent increase for Centene.

Since the beginning of 2014, when Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion began taking effect on a significant scale, shares of both companies have surged by more than 200 percent.

Neidorff downplayed concerns over the long-term viability of the company’s Obamacare business, suggesting that a recent ruling by a Texas judge that the law is unconstitutional is likely to be overturned by a higher court.

The two companies’ Medicaid businesses currently have significant overlap, including in Missouri and Illinois, according to Jefferies.

The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2020, the companies said. They forecast about $500 million in cost savings in the second year after it closes.

Centene said it had built “a prudent amount of potential divestitures” into its forecasts for cost savings from the deal.