How concentrated is the hospital market near you?<\/p>\n
This is a map of the 3,436 hospital service areas across the United States. An HSA is a local health care market where residents get most of their hospital care. The colors indicate if a hospital market is not concentrated (competitive), moderately concentrated, or highly concentrated (noncompetitive). <\/p>\n
![\"Map](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/QAWQEC7LDFFTRKM6RP45UTX4QU.jpg\")
The data was calculated using the 2024 American Hospital Association Annual Survey, which provides hospital to 10,000 (monopoly). An HHI below 1,000 indicates a not concentrated hospital market, 1,000-1,800 is a moderately concentrated one, and above 1,800 is a highly concentrated one.CREDIT: Information Futures Lab\/Brown University DATA SOURCES: Dartmouth Atlas of Healthcare, American Hospital Association\/Credit: Information Futures Lab\/Brown University DATA SOURCES: Healthcare Quality and Outcomes Lab, Harvard T.H Chan School and Center for Health System Sustainability, Brown University School of Public Health<\/p>\n
As competition erodes and prices rise, those costs are passed on to patients through higher premiums and out-of-pocket spending. In 2025, the typical American family of four was projected to pay close to $35,000<\/a> for health care \u2014 often reflecting the high price of care in markets with not enough competition. <\/p>\n To be clear, not every merger is harmful. In some cases, consolidation can lead to better care coordination, fewer unnecessary services, and lower administrative costs. But in other cases, mergers that promise<\/a> \u201cintegration\u201d end up delivering higher prices, fewer choices for patients<\/a>, and potentially even lower quality of care. If health systems seek the benefits of consolidation, these health systems should be able to demonstrate with clear evidence that the merger will actually improve quality or reduce costs.<\/p>\n This situation reflects a series of policy choices that allowed health care markets to consolidate with little resistance. For years, antitrust enforcement in health care was weak<\/a>, and regulators often treated nonprofit hospitals as \u201cmission-driven\u201d institutions exempt from normal market scrutiny. Policy makers, believing that larger systems would deliver better care at lower cost, encouraged consolidation<\/a>. Too often, they were wrong<\/a> \u2014 and prices rose instead.<\/p>\n Insurance markets followed a similar path. Lax oversight allowed insurers to grow larger without becoming better or more innovative, making it harder for new plans or alternative insurance designs to compete, ultimately leaving consumers with fewer choices<\/a>. Some have argued that large insurers are needed to counterbalance large health systems. But that is not always the case. Two monopolies do not automatically create competition; they can instead entrench market positions.<\/p>\n If policy makers are serious about controlling health care spending, confronting high prices that are driven by a lack of competition must be a priority.<\/p>\n