Bill Would End Antitrust Exemption for Insurance
Story summary:
Health and medical malpractice insurance companies would lose an antitrust exemption they've enjoyed since 1945 under a bill introduced Wednesday by Rep. Betsy Markey. The bill is on a fast track and headed for a House vote next week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office said. Markey co-authored the bill with Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Va., arguing that removing the antitrust provision would increase competition and lower prices for consumers.
Bill Would End Antitrust Exemption for Insurance
Health and medical malpractice insurance companies would lose an antitrust exemption they've enjoyed since 1945 under a bill introduced Wednesday by Rep. Betsy Markey.
The bill is on a fast track and headed for a House vote next week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office said.
Markey co-authored the bill with Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Va., arguing that removing the antitrust provision would increase competition and lower prices for consumers. Insurance companies say the bill won't produce savings because states tightly regulate the insurance market, and that it might cause unintended consequences.
The Markey-Perriello bill is part of a broader attempt by Democrats to push through some portions of the stalled health-care reform bill that might win bipartisan support. The antitrust repeal was included in the House version of the reform bill, but not the Senate's version.
"Support for removing this unfair exemption cuts across party lines and is a major piece of common ground that I've been working toward in our country's health-care debate," Markey said in a prepared statement. "This is about bringing sorely-needed competition back into an industry that has for too long wielded monopoly control over hard-working American families."
Markey voted against the House version of the health-care bill in November, saying the bill didn't do enough to control costs. Perriello, a freshman like Markey, voted in favor of the bill.
"It's time to end the monopoly protections that Washing-ton has protected for decades as prices skyrocketed," he said in a statement. "It's time for a simple, clean bill — no carve-outs or special deals — that forces insurance companies to compete. It's time to put patients and cost relief first."
Markey and Perriello said there have been 400 mergers of health insurers during the past 14 years, "so that 95 percent of health insurance markets are 'highly concentrated,' which means consumers have little or no choice between insurers. This non-competitive market has led to health insurance premiums having more than doubled in the past decade."
