Shopping the best Health Insurance deal? Maybe you can’t
February 26th, 2010. By AbiK
On the heels of posting about the recent WellPoint/Anthem health insurance rate hikes, an American Medical Association (AMA) report on competition in the health insurance industry came out this week.
Guess what? AMA President Dr. J. James Rohack summed it up as: “The near total collapse of competitive and dynamic health insurance markets has not helped patients. As demonstrated by proposed rate hikes in California and other states, health insurers have not shown greater efficiency and lower health care costs. Instead patient premiums, deductibles and co-payments have soared without an increase in benefits in these increasingly consolidated markets.”
The report, Competition in Health Insurance: A Comprehensive Study of US Markets, looked at data from 43 states. Interestingly, in 24 of the states, the two largest insurers had a combined market share of 70% or more. Not a consumer packaged goods company out there that wouldn’t love to be sitting in that position.
Also according to the report:
- In 54% of the metro markets, at least one insurer had a market share of 50% or more
- In 92% of metro markets, at least one insurer had a 30% or more market share
The best quote from the Rohack news release is this though—in reference to the lack of competition within the health insurance industry—it “is clearly not in the best economic interest of patients”.
No kidding.
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