Antitrust Policy in Health Care Markets

"In Economics 101, we learn that competition and competitive markets provide the biggest bang for the buck. In a perfectly competitive world, scarce resources are allocated in the most efficient way; the goods and services that are valued most highly are produced in the right quantities and are priced appropriately. Perfectly competitive markets, therefore, maximize social welfare, which is the sum of consumer surplus and producer surplus. Market imperfections can impede the competitive process and introduce inefficiencies which, in time, can reduce the well-being of society. These imperfections include externalities, public goods, asymmetric information, and monopoly power. The public policy response to these market failures is to promote and preserve competition. Concerns over market imperfections are also present in the U.S. health care sector. Departures from competition can lead to poor quality care and cause losses in the hundreds of billions of dollars"--