A federal appeals court on Friday affirmed a lower court’s decision to block a merger of two of the largest health insurers in the country, Anthem and Cigna.

The decision likely puts an end to Anthem's attempted acquisition of Cigna and comes on the heels of another major health insurance deal, between Aetna and Humana, also being blocked.

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The federal appeals court in Washington ruled 2-1 that the deal between Anthem and Cigna would have unacceptably reduced competition in the market.

“We hold that the district court did not abuse its discretion in enjoining the merger based on Anthem’s failure to show the kind of extraordinary efficiencies necessary to offset the conceded anticompetitive effect of the merger in the fourteen Anthem states: the loss of Cigna, an innovative competitor in a highly concentrated market,” the court wrote in its opinion.

When the mergers were announced last year, Republicans argued that pressures from ObamaCare were forcing the consolidation.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellObama calls on Senate not to fill Ginsburg's vacancy until after election Planned Parenthood: 'The fate of our rights' depends on Ginsburg replacement Progressive group to spend M in ad campaign on Supreme Court vacancy MORE (R-Ky.) last year called the Aetna-Humana deal “the inevitable result of Obamacare’s push toward consolidation as doctors, hospitals, and insurers merge in response to an ever-growing government.”