Health Insurer Competition Absent, AMA Says

Ninety-nine percent of the U.S. health insurance market is highly concentrated with one or two dominating health insurers, an American Medical Association claims. The lack of competition, it says, puts physicians and patients at a disadvantage.

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2 comments on "Health Insurer Competition Absent, AMA Says"

Todd (2/4/2011 at 11:11 AM)

This is the same old argument from the AMA. When are these physicians going to stop appealing to the popular belief even when its fallacious? Doctors know the high cost of private insurance and the subsequent consolidation in the marketplace is largely due to the cost shifting required by providers due to the underpayment by medicare and medicaid.

bluetooth (2/3/2011 at 10:11 AM)

THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM. Sadly this article ignores the fundamental driver of health insurance premiums (cost of care) and goes down the rabbit trail of the AMA's red herring of "market share." And no evidence is cited about the AMA claim of members' "higher insurance premiums than they should." To blame insurers for high premiums without addressing the underlying exorbitant and skyrocketing cost of medical care is like blaming the gas station for high gas prices rather than the cost of oil. And according to PriceWaterhouseCoopers, health insurers average 3% profit margin...what do you think physicians' margins are? (Wait for it.)