Blumenthal to Aetna: Drop Dead.

Governor Dannel P. Malloy and his budget chief, Benjamin Barnes, might want to have a word with United States Senator Richard Blumenthal about Connecticut’s “new economic reality”. The Malloy administration and a host of others interested in the state’s troubled economy have been trying to warm the sometimes frosty relationship between state government and Aetna.

Blumenthal and six colleagues have written the Department of Justice in opposition to the Aetna merger with Kentucky-based Humana and Anthem’s with Cigna, which has its headquarters in Bloomfield. Blumenthal calls the mergers “job killers”. Sergeant Blumenthal may find his words prophetic as his hostility to Connecticut companies may push at least one of them, Aetna, to loosen its 163 year old ties to Hartford. Aetna has declined to issue a firm commitment to staying in Hartford.

Blumenthal’s intervention will make it more difficult for Malloy and Luke Bronin, Hartford’s overwhelmed mayor, to deal with a post-merger Aetna.