FTC Testifies on Importance of Competition and Antitrust Enforcement to Lower-Cost, Higher-Quality Health Care
"The Federal Trade Commission today told the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance of the Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation that competition and the agency’s antitrust enforcement improves health care in the United States in two ways – first, by preventing or stopping anticompetitive agreements to raise prices and second, by helping to spur innovation that improves care and expands consumer access.

The testimony was presented by Richard A. Feinstein, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, and described the relationship between competition and antitrust enforcement, on one hand, and lower health care costs and increased health care quality on the other. According to Feinstein, the FTC has been the “cop on the beat” for the past 30 years in stopping
practices that are likely either to increase health care costs or to limit competition that could improve the quality of health care.

For example, the FTC has prevented anticompetitive agreements among health care providers to fix the prices they charge to a health insurance plan, conduct likely to raise prices without improving care. The Commission’s efforts also have helped assure that new and potentially more efficient ways of delivering and financing health care services can arise and compete in the marketplace.

The FTC has consistently opposed legislative proposals to exempt certain types of conduct, such as price-fixing, from antitrust scrutiny. At the same time, the agency has provided guidance on how health care providers can collaborate in ways consistent with the antitrust laws, as such collaborations have the potential to reduce cost and improve quality..."