Providers, Insurers Battle Over the Lack of Competition

The American Medical Association has released a report that shows an estimated 73 million Americans with commercial health insurance live in highly concentrated markets and face limited choices as competition has decreased over four years: a situation that can have negative consequences for patients who rely on commercial health insurance. AMA points to insurance consolidation, such as Anthem-Cigna and Aetna-Humana, as a major impact on the commercial markets. America's Health Insurance Plans hit back pointing to a study from the Health Care Cost Institute that found 72-percent of hospital metro markets were highly concentrated, which have been linked to the rising cost of hospital care Click here for the AMA study, and here for the HCCI study.

• A new report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that ACA marketplaces are stabilizing with more insurers filling gaps, there are 13-percent fewer markets with only one insurer, click here.