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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (9643)	9/19/2009 12:52:31 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

Private companies don't always face a lot of competition 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). 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. Of course my statements above include qualifiers like "usually" and "normally". The reality isn't (and never has been over an entire large economy) one of textbook perfect competition. But "not textbook perfect" doesn't imply "broken", at least overall/in general. 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.