Hospital competition and patients in the National Health Service

In 2006, the English National Health Service (NHS) adopted a series of reforms to boost hospital competition. These reforms provided patients with more options (since it was mandated all patients be given the choice of 5 hospitals) and moved hospitals from a market-determined prices to a regulated price market.

In the paper Death By Market Power: Reform, Competition and Patient Outcomes in the National Health Service, the authors find that patients in markets where hospital competition was more feasible, spent less time in the hospital, were less likely to die, and were treated at the same cost than in less competitive markets.

The case of the NHS could be very helpful to reorganize the healthcare system in many countries of LAC where an important insurer with its own network of clinics and hospital is the main public provider.

To read more about this paper, access this link.