Congress and executive agencies have recently launched investigations into health care market participants as part of the broader discussion surrounding the rising costs of care. In a new insight, Competition Economics Analyst Fred Ashton explains how several bills to promote competition in the industry could reduce costs and improve quality of health care.

Key points:

• President Biden’s executive order on Promoting Competition in the American Economy focused, in part, on hospital consolidation and its effect on health care costs and access to services.
• Several bills have been introduced, or reintroduced, in Congress, often with bipartisan support, that would fill antitrust enforcement gaps, eliminate barriers to entry, and remove an antitrust exemption for a critical residency program facilitator.
• Promoting competition and ensuring the antitrust agencies have authority to act when necessary are preconditions for reducing costs and improving care quality.

Read the analysis