Bill strips insurance companies of antitrust exemption

[ProSense]

Tearing down the barriers to competition…

By Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) - 10/29/09

Congress is on the brink of passing legislation that will truly reform the health insurance market. Reform will improve competition and rein in rising costs, while providing millions of uninsured Americans with access to high quality health care. Competition is the crux of the debate - the lack of competition in the market has hurt consumers, and has contributed to rapidly escalating health care costs. Every year, health care premiums consume a larger portion of Americans household budgets. By tearing down the barriers to competition, for example, by repealing an antitrust exemption and creating a strong public insurance option, Congress can achieve the goals of lower costs and improved health care outcomes.

As premiums continue to skyrocket, we must ensure that health insurers are not engaging in anticompetitive behavior and unfairly driving up health care costs. Since 1945, the health insurance industry has enjoyed an exemption from federal antitrust law. This exemption prevents the application of federal antitrust laws to the business of insurance, provided that the activity is regulated by state law and is not designed to boycott, coerce, or intimidate. Despite the fact that the health insurance industry is highly concentrated, the federal government is handcuffed in its ability to identify or respond to any potential violations. The American Medical Association estimates that 94 percent of the top insurance markets are anticompetitive. In Pueblo, Colorado, for instance, one insurance company controls over 75 percent of the market. Yet the Department of Justice currently does not have the authority to investigate the industry to determine if anticompetitive violations are occurring.

To protect consumers from such unfair practices, House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and I introduced . This measure would repeal the insurance industry's immunity in instances of price fixing, bid rigging, and market allocation by health or medical malpractice insurance issuers. These potentially egregious violations should not be permitted to occur in any industry, and the federal government should be given the power to protect the public from harmful behavior that drives up prices. President Obama recently voiced support for our efforts, criticizing health insurance companies for "earning (large) profits and bonuses while enjoying a privileged exemption from our antitrust laws, a matter that Congress is rightfully reviewing." In conjunction with House leadership, we expect to fold our provision into the broader health care proposal currently moving through the House.

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Offered within a health insurance exchange, a public option would compete on a level playing field against private insurance companies in order to reduce costs. It would not come close to replacing private industry; rather it would simply provide Americans with another choice that will likely be more innovative and affordable than the options currently available. A public option is essential to creating the cost-savings necessary to offset the cost of providing all Americans access to affordable health care.

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[John Q. Citizen]

1. Ahh, NAFTA. Yes. Competition! Thanks for the NAFTA of health care prosense, but no thanks.

If we wanted Romney care we would have elected Romney.

[ProSense]

2. So you wanted insurance companies to keep the antitrust exemption? Also,

why are you thanking me? I'm not a member of Congress.

[John Q. Citizen]

9. I'm thanking you for all the unrenumerated time and energy you are putting into the insurance co

bailout.

Hey, why not just pass a bill to pull the anti-trust exemption. I mean without also bribing the industry with a couple of trillion a decade in public and mandated private money?

[damntexdem]

7. What a ridiculous comparison!

This has the potential to break up the uber-concentration of health insurance firms.

By contrast, NAFTA allows highly-concentrated agricultural firms access to other countries, where they push out small producers.

[John Q. Citizen]

10. Uhhm you may not have been paying attention, but the insurance industry

supports the so-called health care reforms.

They have been on board from day one.

You didn't know that? Dig a little. They have been to all the meetings, they have testified to all the committees, they are on record as supporting the Obama reforms.

They are looking at a couple of trillion dollars a decade more from public tax dollars and from new private expenditures.

Look at their stock prices, if you don't believe me.

[geek tragedy]

8. Proof that some people are looking for an excuse to complain

and aren't really interested in the issues.

We can safely dismiss any complaints from this person as offered in bad faith.

[John Q. Citizen]

11. Excuse me? Please explain yourself, if you are capable of doing so. Who do you speak for,

when you say, "We."

Are you the spokesperson for some group or other? And does your group post here to Democratic Underground as a group?

Thanks for letting me and the other members of DU in on what going on, and for letting us know about your group.

[uponit7771]

3. Good!!

[Hekate]

4. Good. Hope this passes as she says it will. nt

[FrenchieCat]

5. Excellent!

[quakerboy]

6. I like this idea

But then I think to myself "wallmart" and wonder how much difference it could make? Its not like we have great social friendly business in areas that are subject to antitrust legislation