Competition and the mental health system.

Competition and the Marketplace Increasingly the U.S. health care system relies on competition to allocate scarce health care resources. This is even the case for those services that are ultimately paid for by the government. Competition helps to ensure that insurers, hospitals and physicians minimize their costs, keep their prices as low as possible, and innovate to improve quality. In reality, however, many experts have argued that competition does not always offer these benefi ts particularly in health care.