Competition in healthcare. by honeybee

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· @honeybee ·
$22.02
Competition in healthcare.
![](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmTk4NpQQxsAhoL4XQ3MDqyTW1csgouBhZnNj6dsHJjd3q/image.png)

One argument I often see against competition in healthcare is that emergency room patients cannot price-shop.

But this argument ignores the role of competitive entrepreneurship as a discovery process. If healthcare were competitive, then entrepreneurs would discover ways to appeal to discriminating customers.

For example, I suspect that competing ambulance services would offer to price-shop on behalf of patients. The patient themselves might be unable to price-shop at the moment they have an emergency, but the ambulance service can promise to price-shop for the best emergency room on their behalf.

If the market is sufficiently competitive, then ambulance services might even offer money-back guarantees for when the patient discovers they weren't taken to the lowest-price emergency room in their area.

Furthermore, insurance companies might promise to cover all the costs of emergency care as long as the patient/customer uses one of a specific set of ambulance services. That is, the insurance company would vet the ambulance services, and if the ambulance service fails to consistently take patients to the lowest-price emergency room, the insurance company will remove that ambulance service from their list.

Thus, we might have not one but two different types of firms price-shopping on behalf of patients. The patient would not have to price-shop for the lowest-price emergency room because the ambulance service would do so, and the insurance company would exercise oversight over the ambulance services.

Of course, the patient cannot price-shop for the best ambulance service at the moment of their emergency. But their family members might - especially if the patient has an insurance card that instructs family members to call such-and-such ambulance services in order to guarantee coverage.

Furthermore, many ambulance services would likely compete to become well-known for offering good price-shopping. Some services might become household names, similar to e.g. Xerox or Kleenex or the like. Ambulance services would endeavour to be accepted by a sufficiently large number of insurance companies so that their brand-name is well-known nationwide.

This competition wouldn't be perfect, of course, because there's always a possibility that a family member or stranger calls the "wrong" ambulance service. But competition does not need to be perfect. This system might still create enough competition to reduce prices to nearly the competitive level.

I'm sure there are other possibilities as well. But this is at least one feasible form of competition that could competitively control prices even for emergency rooms.
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@resteemsupport ·
Hello honeybee!

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@tts ·
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