A proposed merger between Downers Grove, Ill.-based Advocate Health Care and Evanston, Ill.-based NorthShore University HealthSystem  might result in patients getting a low-cost health-insurance plan,  Crain’s Chicago Business reports.

The merged entity would include more than 4,000 hospital beds and employ more than 45,000.

Advocate and NorthShore asserted that the proposed merger, which some regulators and others have looked askance as potentially restraining trade and thus raising healthcare costs, would let the combined system create a new insurance product  to be priced at least 10 percent below the cheapest comparable plan on the market.  The proposed plan would limit access to providers in the Advocate-NorthShore system.  

The Federal Trade Commission seeks a preliminary injunction to stop the merger.

“If this merger is blocked, Chicagoland consumers will be harmed by losing the opportunity to save hundreds of dollars per individual in the network every year,” the systems asserted.

The merged entity would include more than 4,000 hospital beds and employ more than 45,000 workers.