I'm having some difficulty responding to your question because the answer seems so obvious. It's Econ 101 that competition lowers prices so I don't understand what you could be asking. Sorry.
My point is that, under the best of scenarios, interstate competition for insurance companies may result in some savings in admin expenses or reduced profits, but it does nothing to reduce the actual cost of medicine which is regional in nature and represents the vast majority of the $2T+ yearly health care cost pool. This is particularly likely to be true in an environment in which the insurance business is under further scrutiny for less than ethical practices.
To really address the cost of medicine one needs to attack the bulk of its cost, the medical delivery system, which is and remains private (except for the VA)...(doctors, hospitals, pharma, medical practices, BoB medicine, IT infrastructure, regulation, tax treatment, fee structures, etc..).
Al |
