The Health Care Revolution: From Medical Monopoly to Market CompetitionUniversity of California Press, 2008 M04 9 - 272 pages America's market-based health care system, unique among the nations of the world, is in large part the product of an obscure, yet profound, revolution that overthrew the medical monopoly in the late 1970s. In this lucid, balanced account, Carl F. Ameringer tells how this revolution came into being when the U.S. Supreme Court and Congress prompted the antitrust agencies of the federal government—the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department—to change the rules of the health care system. Ameringer lays out the key events that led up to this regime change; explores its broader social, political, and economic contexts; examines the views of both its proponents and opponents; and considers its current trajectory. |
Contents
| 1 | |
1 The Professional Regime | 21 |
2 Precursors of Change | 42 |
3 The Triumph of Market Theory | 59 |
4 The Federal Trade Commission Takes the Lead | 78 |
5 The AMA Case | 100 |
6 A Question of Jurisdiction | 119 |
7 Drawing the Line between Clinical and Business Practices | 135 |
8 The Quest for Antitrust Relief | 155 |
9 The Demonization of Managed Care | 173 |
Conclusion | 196 |
References | 211 |
Index | 231 |
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The Health Care Revolution: From Medical Monopoly to Market Competition Carl F. Ameringer Limited preview - 2008 |
Common terms and phrases
accreditation action administrative advertising agency AMA's American Medical Ass'n anticompetitive practices antitrust laws asserted attorneys Bierig Blackmun Board Bork Bureau of Competition Campion Chicago school chiropractic cians Clark Havighurst clinical Committee consumer contract practice corporate Costilo costs decision Department of Justice deregulation doctors economists efforts enforcement ERISA exemption Federal Trade Commission Fishbein FTC Special Collections FTC's Goldfarb Group Health group practice Havighurst health care industry health care revolution health insurance health plans HMOs hospital independent practice associations issue James James Sammons Judge learned professions legislation managed managed care Maricopa market competition Medical Ethics medical monopoly medical profession medical societies Medicare medicine’s Muris organized medicine patients percent Pertschuk physi physicians political prepaid President Proceedings December Proceedings June professional associations public choice theory regulation restrictions Schwartz self-regulation Senate Sherman Act standards Stevens tion U.S. Congress U.S. Supreme Court United University Press wrote
Popular passages
Page 38 - ... they have broad power to establish standards for licensing practitioners and regulating the practice of professions. We also recognize that in some instances the State may decide that 'forms of competition usual in the business world may be demoralizing to the ethical standards of a profession.
Page 10 - The fact that a restraint operates upon a profession as distinguished from a business is, of course, relevant in determining whether that particular restraint violates the Sherman Act. It would be unrealistic to view the practice of professions as interchangeable with other business activities, and automatically to apply to the professions antitrust concepts which originated in other areas.
Page 100 - It would be unrealistic to view the practice of professions as interchangeable with other business activities, and automatically to apply to the professions antitrust concepts which originated in other areas. The public service aspect, and other features of the professions, may require that a particular practice, which could properly be viewed as a violation of the Sherman Act in another context, be treated differently.
Page 108 - We do not foreclose the possibility that some limited supplementation, by way of warning or disclaimer or the like, might be required of even an advertisement of the kind ruled upon today so as to assure that the consumer is not misled. In sum, we recognize that many of the problems in defining the boundary between deceptive and nondeceptive advertising remain to be resolved, and we expect that the bar will have a special role to play in assuring that advertising by attorneys flows both freely and...
Page 179 - Physician shall agree not to take any action or make any communication which undermines or could undermine the confidence of enrollees, potential enrollees, their employers, their unions, or the public in US Healthcare or the quality of US Healthcare coverage...
Page 10 - Wherever any occupation, employment, or business is carried on for the purpose of profit, or gain, or a livelihood, not in the liberal arts or in the learned professions, it is constantly called a trade.
Page 30 - However the cost of medical service may be distributed, the immediate cost should be borne by the patient, if able to pay, at the time the service is rendered.
Page 30 - All features of medical service in any method of medical practice should be under the control of the medical profession.
Page 61 - I know of no example in time or place of a society that has been marked by a large measure of political freedom, and that has not also used something comparable to a free market to organize the bulk of economic activity.9 Note that Friedman's claim is a limited one.
Page 109 - Contrary to its name, the Rule does not open the field of antitrust inquiry to any argument in favor of a challenged restraint that may fall within the realm of reason. Instead, it focuses directly on the challenged restraint's impact on competitive conditions.