Competition Vs. Regulation in the Health Care Market: Approaches to Cost Containment

This thesis explores the merits of both the competitive and the regulatory strategies to cost containment in the health care market. It discusses the justifications for the use of these strategies and examines the effectiveness of each through case studies of health maintenance organization (HMOs) and diagnosis-related groups (DRGs). In addition, it considers how these strategies impact the quality of and access to care, highlighting the relationship between HMOs and the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The analysis indicates that neither HMOs nor DRGs have had a significant impact on containing total health care costs as both have failed to adequately address the factors that contribute to rising costs