Health care reform and competing visions of medical care: antitrust and state provider cooperation legislation.

Abstract

This Article examines the competing visions of medical care represented by the professional paradigm and the market-based economic paradigm and considers the implications of those visions for the development of public policy. The first Part identifies the premises underlying the professional model and the influences that have bolstered each model. Notably, application of antitrust law to the health care marketplace has contributed to the growing role of the market paradigm in the health care industry and thus has figured largely in the debate over health care reform. The second Part discusses recently enacted legislation designed to facilitate cooperation among health care providers such as hospitals. These laws purport to provide antitrust immunity under the state action doctrine.