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Politics : A US National Health Care System?

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To: TimF who wrote (9648)	9/19/2009 3:36:13 PM
From: Road Walker	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) of 42652

When they don't its usually because of government protection or support of some type, or some other form of government interference in the market. Without such protection there normally is competition, and when there isn't there can still be a realistic threat of competition (some unprotected monopolies or near monopolies lower prices and improve quality to forestall competition from developing). That's really not true. I spent 15 years in an industry with 2 serious players. Nobody had a chance to challenge us because we were both big and the plant investment would have been huge... and we had most all of the business tied up. Did we collude on prices? Not illegally, but we both knew not to be stupid and start a discount war and kill or own profits... which were great. The incremental business wasn't worth it. As industries consolidate you see more and more of that. Are CVS and Walgreens mounting a price war against each other? I think not.... they are both happy to share the business without killing their margins. Government has nothing to do with it. In the specific case of health insurance companies it seems competition is greater than has been suggested, but if we want it to increase even more just drop the interstate barriers. The current market is an in state market, and from what I understand there are one or two big players in each market... not a lot of cut throat competition. I think it's a good idea to allow it across state lines... but you are centralizing authority. It will still have to be regulated, and it will be Congress doing the regulating. And I suspect there are other unintended consequences... though I can't put my finger on them. Cases of truly "broken" exist, most are caused totally or partially by government but non-government related cases may exist as well, they just aren't the norm. It may be more often than you think. Consolidation hasn't been good for real capitalism and competition. Just as gerrymandering and special interests haven't been good for real representative democracy.

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