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Managed Care and Monopoly Power

Managed Care and Monopoly Power

The Antitrust Challenge

Deborah Haas-Wilson

ISBN 9780674010529

Publication date: 07/31/2003

As millions of Americans are aware, health care costs continue to increase rapidly. Much of this increase is due to the development of new life-sustaining drugs and procedures, but part of it is due to the increased monopoly power of physicians, insurance companies, and hospitals, as the health care sector undergoes reorganization and consolidation. There are two tools to limit the growth of monopoly power: government regulation and antitrust policy. In this timely book, Deborah Haas-Wilson argues that enforcement of the antitrust laws is the tool of choice in most cases.

The antitrust laws, when wisely enforced, permit markets to work competitively and therefore efficiently. Competitive markets foster low prices and high quality. Applying antitrust tools wisely, however, is a tricky business, and Haas-Wilson carefully explains how it can be done. Focusing on the economic concepts necessary to the enforcement of the antitrust laws in health care markets, Haas-Wilson provides a useful roadmap for guiding the future of these markets.

Praise

  • [Haas-Wilson] demonstrates an immense depth of scholarship in the law and economics… [T]his is an excellent book… Economists and laymen who care about health policy or health antitrust should read this book.

    —H. E. Frech III, Journal of Economic Literature

Author

  • Deborah Haas-Wilson is Professor of Economics, Smith College.

Book Details

  • 256 pages
  • 6-1/8 x 9-1/4 inches
  • Harvard University Press

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