Market-based interventions have provided insufficient relief from rising commercial health care costs. As a result, states have a unique and pressing opportunity to enact policies that place downward pressure on unit prices and rebalance market power toward health care purchasers and consumers. The geographic, political, and economic diversity across the 50 United States opens possibilities for state governments to shape their own policy agendas; however, states will likely find that a single piece of legislation proves insufficient to deliver meaningful relief, and/or will create vulnerabilities that are easily exploited by stakeholders who benefit from the status quo. Therefore, state legislators may want to consider combinations or menus of policy options to create complementary infrastructure, close loopholes and plan for contingencies.

This policy brief, number 4 of 6 in the series, focuses on empowering existing balancers of market power – i.e., amplifying the influence of employers and other health care purchasers along with the health plans who negotiate on their behalf.

Download all six briefs here.

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CPR will host a 4 part webinar series laying out the case for combinations of state policy interventions designed to place downward pressure on commercial prices and rebalance market power. Register for those webinars below:

• Webinar #1: The Case for Multifaceted Public Policy Intervention
• Webinar #2: Policies to Prevent/Punish Bad Behavior and Empower Market Balancers
• Webinar #3: Policies to Regulate Prices
• Webinar #4: Policies for Low-Intervention States & Policies to Protect Competition

CPR’s white paper profiles five scenario-based policy menus, designed to help state policymakers, advocacy organizations and other stakeholders navigate through the multitude of policy intervention options and identify those best suited to meet their unique circumstances.

Download the FREE report here.