AMA Study Shows Lack of Health Insurance Competition in U.S. September 29, 2021
Written by MSDC Staff
A new AMA study released yesterday shows the rise of highly concentrated markets for health insurance throughout the U.S.
The study, entitled Competition in Health Insurance: A Comprehensive Study of U.S. Markets, analyzed market concentration and health insurance market shares for 384 metropolitan statistical areas (MSA) and the 50 states plus DC. The study also presented national-level market shares for the 10 largest health insurers in the U.S.
The results show a decline in insurance competition at the state, national, and local level:
- 73% of MSA-level markets were high concentrated according to federal guidelines
- 46% of MSA-level markets had one insurer with a share of 50% or more
- 14 states had one health insurer with a share of 50% or more of the commercial health insurance market
The District is below the national average in terms of market concentration. For DC itself, the insurer with the largest market share (Carefirst) has a 31% share of health insurance product marketplace. The second highest (UnitedHealth Group) has a 20% share. However, DC belongs to the national majority in that a Blue Cross Blue Shield affiliate had the largest state-level market share in 40 states.