neglect the competition between health care providers for patients which is crucial for medical quality. This third field of …Many health economists demand more competition in the health care system. They focus on the competition between … sickness funds for insured and the competition between health care providers for contracts with sickness funds. But they …

We study how competition between physicians affects the provision of medical care. In our theoretical model physicians … effects of competition for active patients as well as the negative effects of competition for passive patients become more … pronounced. Our results imply that competition can not only improve but also worsen patient outcome and that patients …