Defend or critique the key provisions of antitrust legislation in the United States. Analyze the major ways in which quality issues in health care affect antirust health care policy. Provide at least one example of antitrust laws in action to support your response.

 

Antitrust legislation are laws passed in the United States between 1890 and 1915, to prevent large business corporations called trust from coming together into monopolies to restrict competition. Many consumers in the States however do not have an idea of what antitrust laws are but it has saved them a lot of money. These laws prohibit business practices that unreasonably deprive consumers of benefits of competition resulting in higher prices of products and services

Hospitals are simply business firms organized to provide medical services. Undeniably these services involve complicated combinations of physical facilities, advanced technology and specialized human capital. .However, modern antitrust laws focuses on firm behavior and not its objective.

Non profit status and similar hallmarks of good intentions are not relevant to antitrust analysis.

Hospital firms can follow whatever objection function they like as long as they do not combine to form a monopoly

Example of antitrust laws are;

The Sherman Antitrust act

Clayton Antitrust Act