This cycle is one of big concern to me. In Pennsylvania, UPMC keeps growing its monopoly and getting into territory disputes with Highmark Health. In this case, both companies offer insurance and health care. At one point, UPMC decided to stop accepting Highmark health insurance, which is what the state government used as their health provider. State employees became effectively barred from using the near-monopoly healthcare provider for the Western half of the state. This has been going on for years, each year with variations of "consent decrees" where the two providers make concessions what facilities in underserved areas they will see other's clients in.
I've been watching this play out in my state for years, but never quite realized the full impact of this until a recent Guardian article mentioned UPMC by name as why single-payer/medicare-for-all could fail.
>Who would blink first if the government threatened to exclude UPMC from its healthcare plan, which under a “Medicare for All” system, would be the only one available? Without access to the UPMC system, the region would face an instant healthcare crisis.
As someone that watched a state government blink first and change insurance providers, this really drove the point home.
I've been watching this play out in my state for years, but never quite realized the full impact of this until a recent Guardian article mentioned UPMC by name as why single-payer/medicare-for-all could fail.
>Who would blink first if the government threatened to exclude UPMC from its healthcare plan, which under a “Medicare for All” system, would be the only one available? Without access to the UPMC system, the region would face an instant healthcare crisis.
As someone that watched a state government blink first and change insurance providers, this really drove the point home.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/28/big-me...