An (Almost) Perfectly Competitive Health Care Model for Patients that Minimizes Cost, Maximizes Satisfaction, Manages Medical Payments, and Generates Health Care Competition

Abstract

The American health care system does not operate in an actual free market environment. The patient cannot manage his or her healthcare services and control his or her costs. This paper will discuss three of the requirements for perfect competition: (1) Many buyers, (2) Many sellers and (3) Perfect information. The meeting place for the solution to these requirements will generate an almost perfectly competitive market for medicine and return almost complete control to the patient. This meeting place will be an online auction/marketplace service. The service will act as a reverse auction or marketplace with competing providers bidding down prices to fill available slots in their services. The system will use current medical coding numbers to allow comparative pricing. Services can be bundled or sought individually by both the patient and the provider. Patients can choose how long to wait, how far to travel, and how much they want to pay before deciding on the provider.