According to the AMA’s 2019 update of “Competition in Health Insurance: A Comprehensive Study of U.S. Markets.”, Americans in three-quarters of commercial health insurance markets have a limited number of health insurers from which to choose. In almost half of metropolitan areas, a single health insurer has 50 percent or more of the market, and patients are not benefitting from this degree of market power per AMA President Patrice A. Harris, MD, MA. Seventy-five percent of 382 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) studied by the AMA were found to be highly concentrated in 2018. The 75% figure in 2018 is up four percentage points compared with 2014. The AMA report concludes, “The majority of U.S. commercial health insurance markets are highly concentrated,” and on average these “markets are becoming even more concentrated over time. These markets are ripe for the exercise of health insurer market power, which harms consumers and providers of care.”
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