When insurers face higher hospital prices, they pass the costs on and raise the prices they charge for everyone’s health insurance. In Melbourne, Florida, Holmes Regional Medical Center is part of a health system, Health First, that dominates surrounding Brevard County. The American Hospital Association has argued that hospital mergers can improve quality and reduce healthcare costs by creating “a fiscally sustainable environment.” From 2002 to 2020 alone, more than 1,000 hospital mergers unfolded in the United States. In 2023, Minnesota passed a law banning anticompetitive healthcare mergers and bolstering state oversight.