House and Senate Democrats Move to Repeal the Anti-Trust Exemption Favoring Healthcare Insurers

Recently, I kicked the House and Senate versions of the Health Care Reform bill to the curb for not including a repeal of the anti-trust exemption that healthcare insurers have benefited from since 1945. I've been doing more research on the issue and have learned a couple important revelations that oddly have gained little press from big media outlets.

First, in late October 2009, a House panel voted IN FAVOR of repealing the anti-trust exemption from the McCarran Ferguson Act originally passed in 1945. While some of my original sources indicated that this repeal had not been included in the House version of the healthcare reform bill, other sources I am now reading indicate that in fact IT HAD BEEN INCLUDED (but with qualifications it seems... the language I'm reading is that it removed "most" of the exemption; I haven't seen an adequate description of what "most" means in this context). That's good news. But there is better news...

Second, over the past two weeks House Dems as well as a group of Senate Dems have once again moved on senior leadership to repeal the anti-trust exemption, articulating that it is vital that the FINAL version of the Health Care Reform bill must include the repeal. Not surprisingly, according to sources I am reading, lobbyists representing healthcare insurers have been contacting certain senators (not identified) to persuade them to not repeal the exemption. The lobbyists argue that the anti-trust exemption is not all that important and that Dems are barking up a tree with no squirrel in it. Dems are not convinced, and neither am I. The exemption permits insurers to share competitive information in order to determine what the appropriate rates should be for services; there's a word for that -- collusion. A letter from House Dems cites to a public opinion poll where Americans overwhelmingly favored "health insurance companies [playing] by the same rules as every other company in America.”

Someone in Washington is listening to the public. Finally.

Peace

Jeremy