Aetna Inc. said Monday it will buy the Medicare supplement business of Genworth Financial Inc. for about $290 million, as it becomes the latest health insurer to announce a plan that capitalizes on the aging baby boomer population.

Health care costs will take another leap next year, and more employers will ask their workers to help absorb that by paying deductibles even if the care is within a plan's network of providers, according to the consulting firm PwC.

Health care costs have more than doubled for some American families over the past nine years, and they show few signs of dropping, according to a report released Wednesday by the actuarial consulting firm Milliman Inc.

Cigna Corp.'s first-quarter net income jumped 52 percent as medical claims fell, the international business grew again, and it raised its 2011 profit forecast like other big health insurers that also beat expectations for the quarter.

WellPoint Inc. said a drop in expenses helped raise its first-quarter net income nearly 6 percent, as it became the third big health insurer in the past week to beat analyst expectations and raise its 2011 earnings forecast.

Humana Inc. gave investors more signs that some insurers will be able to handle the health care overhaul's latest restrictions when it announced a new quarterly dividend and better-than-expected first-quarter results on Tuesday.

Tenet Healthcare has charged rival hospital operator Community Health Systems with systematically bilking Medicare, and the burgeoning legal fight sent shares of the entire sector sliding Monday.