Want cheaper healthcare? Don't reward hospitals for buying competition

With the midterm elections just around the corner, healthcare and affordability will likely once again dominate the airwaves. There’s no shortage of ambitious reforms out there, yet Congress should start by focusing its attention on the biggest drivers of health spending in recent years: hospital systems.

Between 2022 and 2024, hospital services represented 40% of the overall growth in national health expenditures, a surge that outpaced every other source of medical spending, including prescription drugs. The federal government already spends more than $1.8 trillion annually on healthcare, and as the American population continues to age, the burden hospital spending imposes on taxpayers will only worsen.