Lina Khan no longer chairs the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), but the agency's fixation on "bigness" as the fundamental problem in American business hasn't changed from the Biden years. On October 22nd, President Trump's FTC chair Andrew Ferguson announced investigations into what he dubbed "serial acquisitions" referring to smaller repeated purchases of hospital systems that individually pass FTC scrutiny, but which together may help a firm attain market power.
To deter mergers with large firms, Chairman Ferguson and Commissioner Mark Meador sent a stern warning to hospitals, dismissing the "failing firm" defense in the transaction between Fairfield Medical Center and Adina Health. The message was clear: even failing hospitals should seek out smaller competitors before approaching dominant systems.
It's as if Lina Khan never left. Federal authorities are still treating largescale mergers with suspicion, by default, without cause. This needs to stop.
The Consumer Choice Center recently presented its paper at the first-ever symposium on the roots of the U.S. healthcare crisis, jointly organized with the Center for the Study of Governance and Society at King's College London. It identified two truths pertaining to hospital mergers that should encourage the FTC to drop its hostility toward bigness.