Submitted by Art Fougner MD, Mar 10, 2008 08:10

Consumer-driven plans won't take hold without government intervention. No, not the establishment of a government-run system. What I'm talking about is Monopsony - the flip side of Monopoly. Since the Insurance Plans contract with physicians - the "Sellers" of care, they then become the "Buyers." As such, they've been given a pass from anti-trust actions by the DOJ. Yet we've seen, mergers of Health Insurers so that in some areas, there are less than a handful of payors. In fact, it appears that we are well on our way to a Single-Payor system, not government run single payor but UnitedAetnaOxfordManagedNoChoice, or Inhumana for short. With few players in the Health Insurance arena, a consumer driven purchase of health insurance, as with employer driven purchase of Health Insurance, is doomed to failure. What we need from both sides of the aisle on this debate is less pontificating and more reasoned analysis of the Health Insurers Monopsony to insure a level playing field for Healthcare Markets.

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