OP-ED: UNC Health antitrust exemptions in the budget would hurt consumers
Right now, the proposed state budget includes changes that would be a huge step backward for healthcare in North Carolina. As our options for healthcare grow, patients deserve the protections currently in place to ensure that growth is fair. Lawmakers have a duty to protect that fairness, and the current budget changes fall short of that responsibility.
Federal Trade Commission officials have gone on the record opposing changes which specifically benefit UNC Health, saying they would “shield mergers and conduct that would violate the antitrust laws by depriving patients and workers of the benefits of competition.”
While preserving access to care in rural communities of North Carolina should be prioritized, this legislation is not the way to do it. Laws can be written to target rural areas that need help, but current provisions are so broad they instead give a single, large health system a widespread unfair advantage.
Our legislators should do the right thing to protect patients like me and remove antitrust exemptions for UNC Health or any other hospital system from the current budget proposal.
Matt Adams
Former Chairman, NC Federation of College Republicans
Gastonia, NC
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