Hospital Consolidation Has Been Bad for England
[B]etween 1997 and 2006 in England around half the short term general hospitals were involved in a merger … [These mergers are initiated by a regulator, acting on behalf of the public, and justified on the grounds that merger will improve outcomes.] … We examine the impact of mergers on a large set of outcomes including financial performance, productivity, waiting times and clinical quality and find little evidence that mergers achieved gains other than a reduction in activity. In addition, mergers reduce the scope for competition between hospitals.
Source: NBER study
There are lessons for the USA in here.
Joe, the most important lesson is that the consolidation Obama Care is encouraging is going to make us all worse off.
There are generally only a few hospitals in an urban region and a handful of insurers paying them. In the absence of price competition for numerous cash-paying patients, hospital consolidation has meant rising prices.
If prices rise enough, some will call for some unspecified future merger to be blocked.
Also, consolidation usually reduces healthcare locations – this can leave large, rural areas without reasonable access to regular healthcare.