Is a genuine market in health insurance even possible?

A new study suggests health care doesn't work like other products

Too many options.
(Image credit: iStock)

Genuine competitive markets in health insurance and health care are sort of like Bigfoot: There's no real documented case of them appearing in the wild, but some people remain convinced they're out there.

ObamaCare itself is premised on the notion that competitive markets — albeit ones that occur in an environment heavily structured by regulations and subsidies — are possible. And ObamaCare's conservative critics insist that no, even that structuring is too much, and that we need to clear out even more regulation and spend even less and then we'll get to a competitive market. Yet every other advanced nation relies on some form of single-payer or all-payer rate-setting — including Switzerland, arguably ObamaCare's closest cousin.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Jeff Spross

Jeff Spross was the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He was previously a reporter at ThinkProgress.