The website Inside Business wrote: “A monopoly is bad for the economy and allows one business to set the prices for a certain product or service virtually eliminating free-trade. If one business is the only provider of a product or service, the consumer is forced to pay whatever price they demand. This can also lead to the company providing a low quality product or service without fear of losing business.”
In 1890, the Sherman Antitrust Act was even enacted to make monopolies illegal and for a time it was considered a felony.
The Internet is awash with lefty bloggers railing against corporate monopolies. One such blogger wrote, “One of the fundamentals of free-market capitalism is that the consumer benefit from competition is plentiful. If a business is selling a week or inferior product, consumers can turn to the competition for a better deal.”
He continued by describing that the patron Saint of big government, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, stressed antitrust as a “key element of the New Deal” and “that large companies should be forced into a competitive environment whether they like it or not.”
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So let’s see if I have this right. Monopolies thwart the free market. They provide weak and inferior products through lack of competition and without said competition, consumers will eventually be forced to pay higher prices.
Well, I happen to agree with the lefties on this one. No, not with all the regulatory crap or FDR’s New Deal, but certainly the environment that monopolies create.
Monopolies never work out well for the consumer and here in New Hampshire, we get to experience it firsthand.
See, here in the Granite State, Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield is the sole Obamacare provider. Yes, that’s right. We have but one option for individual health care in the entire state.
How’s that working out, you may ask? Not well!
But we have assurances that the Obamacare monopoly will be okay. Assurances like that of Anthem president Lisa Guertin, who said that they welcome competition, and have no plans to exploit the current monopoly.
Well, that’s good enough for me.
Yet, interestingly, they’ve already eliminated almost 40% of the state’s major hospitals from the Obamacare “network.” Ten of 26 major medical centers are not in the Anthem network.
According to Paula Rogers, Anthem’s governmental affairs director, they asked themselves, “Do we need 26 hospitals to serve our plan? We decided we didn’t.”
So, now those who live in the state’s outlying areas will have to travel great distances, driving past out-of-network hospitals on the way, to get care.
State Senator Sam Cataldo, who had knee surgery last summer, said the only two New Hampshire hospitals who provide that service are NOT included in the narrow network.
To that, Ms. Guertin replied, “I understand its imperfect. It isn’t perfect. But I do believe it’s in the greater good.”
And there you have the mindset for every progressive government instituted program. Give up your individual rights and privileges and freedoms for the collectivist “Greater Good.”
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