That loaf of bread you prefer is not the only brand on the shelf at the grocery store. Most are good quality products with similar pricing. But if one brand tries to raise its price much more than the others without a noticeable increase in quality, that brand would lose some of its sales volume.
It's called competition.
When Henry Ford first made the T-Model car, you could get it in black, black or black. As soon as a new car competitor introduced cars and you could choose a different color other than black, Ford started making cars in multiple colors. Now look at the colors, the styles, the sizes and the many other variations in car choices we have today.
It's called competition.
That's how it works for everything we buy. As a result, product quality remains comparable, and prices remain competitive. Remember the EpiPen outrage, when the price tripled for a while to $600, because the company had a patent-protected monopoly on a product that many people had to have for medical safety reasons? They did have a monopoly, but consumer pressure caused them to quickly develop a lower cost alternative to compete with its own product. Imagine that!
Our U.S. economy is the largest in the world because of competition, innovation, entrepreneurial freedom, and as little government control as possible. Yes, government has a responsibility to level the competitive playing field within the law, but direct price and quality controls are discouraged.
In contrast, a country like Venezuela is in an economic and social crisis because of decades of dictatorial government control, and the lack of a competitive business environment. They have squandered their oil natural resources, benefiting only a few while the people suffer.
The same principle of competition works for our health care and health insurance system, if government would get out of the way. The UCA put more government in the way with mandates, penalties and hidden taxes. The AHCA gets government out of the way as much as possible in the first phase of the Republican plan.
With competition amongst insurance companies. there will be more than one insurance company in any county in the country. Right now, over 1,000 of our 3,142 counties have only one insurance company doing business in that county. That's a recipe for higher prices and minimal service.
The Democrats and liberals want to keep the UCA because they love big government control even when it doesn't work. As I described earlier this week, our health care and insurance system is now a pile of splinters, and they believe they can fix it with more government control and even less competition.
Democrats, liberals, liberal organizations and their media allies have resorted to totally misleading their supporters and the general public in an effort to kill the AHCA. They make false claims about what will happen to prices and accessibility to health care and health insurance if the AHCA becomes law. These are the same people who lied to us about the UCA. Now look at the mess we are in!
Competition alone isn't going to cause a better house to be built, but it's the required foundation to rebuild what has been destroyed, and to make the environment better for long-term success.
Look around you! Competition is everywhere, and it's working!
