Competition in commercial health insurance decreases since 2014

CHICAGO – The American Medical Association (AMA) announced today that the share of highly concentrated markets in the commercial health insurance industry has increased from 71 to 75 percent between 2014 and 2018. These estimates are from the AMA’s annual assessment of market concentration in the health insurance industry: Competition in Health Insurance: A Comprehensive Study of US Markets. Based on enrollment data used in the newly released AMA study, an estimated 73 million Americans with commercial health insurance live in highly concentrated markets and face limited choice. 

“Americans in three-quarters of commercial health insurance markets have a limited number of health insurers from which to choose.” said AMA President Patrice A. Harris, M.D., M.A. “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. While health insurers grow corporate profits, networks are too narrow, premiums are too high, and benefits are too watered down.”