In a recent address, (12 November) Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter emphasized the need for stronger antitrust measures to address the “platformization” of health care, calling for a break from outdated competition policy models. Kanter highlighted how extensive consolidation in health care has driven costs up while reducing access and quality, with corporate giants like UnitedHealth integrating across multiple health care layers and increasing profits by exploiting regulatory loopholes.
Kanter shared stories of patients and health care providers struggling with rising costs and reduced access, attributing these issues to monopolistic practices and middleman inefficiencies. He criticized the influence of major insurers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) in driving prices up through self-preferencing and complex rebate schemes, which often exclude independent providers and restrict patient choice.
Noting that platform dominance in health care resembles challenges seen in “Big Tech,” Kanter expressed concern that a small number of vertically integrated companies could eventually monopolize the health care system, creating a de facto private single-payer model with minimal oversight. The speech, delivered on the same day the DOJ sued UnitedHealth to block its acquisition of Amedisys, underscored the Antitrust Division’s commitment to challenging health care mergers that could harm patients, reduce competition, and worsen care quality.
Kanter concluded by urging a reevaluation of antitrust practices to protect patient choice and foster a competitive health care landscape, calling it “an inflection point” for American health care policy.
