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B2bdna's avatar

Another angle, powerful yet subtle. The competitiveness of a market isn't defined simply by how many competitors but by the information asymmetry and power imbalance between consumer and producer. This is one of the areas where the libertarians are hopelessly naive, btw. If I'm asked to compare two insurance plans, and one has a 65 page contract of terms and the other had a 70 page contract of different terms, there is 0% chance that I can make an informed price comparison even as a diligent consumer. The insurers are obscuring price behind all that fine print. But if, instead, a benevolent state insurance commission made all the insurers offer me a plan with the SAME fine print (contract terms) then as a consumer I can compare on price. The insurers with their analysts and actuaries can put a price to these terms in ways consumers can't. So somewhere in your plan needs to be specific tactics to ACTUALLY INCREASE COMPETITION. Competitive outcomes exist on a continuum, and the policy analyst needs to know how to push the system along that competitive continuum.

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Paul A Mauger's avatar

Direct care seems to cut out lots of middle men and unnecessary administrative bloat in our health care system. How have you experienced it? How have your patients responded?

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