[I]n all we do to improve health care in America, we will make sure that health decisions are made by doctors and patients, not by bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. - President George W. Bush

President Bush's words have long fallen on deaf ears at the Federal Trade Commission.  Dating back to the presidency of Mr. Bush's father, the FTC has used the antitrust laws as a proverbial “weapon of mass destruction” against health care providers who challenge the network of state-sponsored cartels that form the managed care industry.  The Commission has said that it is only protecting the right of consumers to receive the “benefits of competition” among health care providers.  But the truth has been long understood, if not always stated publicly: Antitrust prosecution of physicians is a protectionist tactic designed to insulate managed care organizations from free market economic principles.

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