It is time to empower our Attorney General to address monopoly risks in the healthcare space.  I will be introducing legislation that would create antitrust protections and pre-merger notification requirements for health care consolidation transactions. In 2025, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a report highlighting the impacts that private equity and increasing amounts of consolidation in the U.S. health care system have had, leading to patients paying higher prices for less access to necessary services. This bill will protect patients and health care workers alike from anti-competitive behaviors that prioritize profits over people.
 
The United States has federal antitrust statutes that have been utilized over the years to break up large businesses to keep them from muscling out smaller competitors and maintaining a free and fair marketplace. In just the past five years, these federal statutes have been used as the basis for 65 federal antitrust cases against health care companies, health care facilities, or provider groups, demonstrating the continued need for regulation to prevent hospitals and doctors’ offices from closing, interruptions to services in areas of critical need, and increases to out-of-pocket costs for patients. While our Attorney General’s Office does use data from the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council when reviewing merger proposals from hospitals in our state to evaluate and determine the potential merging hospitals’ market power, we can do more.
 
I look forward to your support for this legislation that will protect every Pennsylvanian’s right to fair and convenient access to lifesaving health care services.