House passes antitrust repeal
The measure, the Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act, was passed Wednesday afternoon in a bipartisan vote of 406-19. Perriello introduced the measure with fellow freshman Democrat Rep. Betsy Markey of Colorado.
Perriello said the bill would restore competition to the health insurance industry, improve quality, increase consumer choice and drive down costs for customers.
“If you’re a health insurance company and you’re not engaged in monopolistic practices, you’re not colluding, then you have nothing to worry about,” Perriello said in a speech on the House floor Wednesday. “But if you are, be afraid. Be very afraid. Because you are no longer going to enjoy the monopoly protections you have enjoyed for 65 years.”
The health insurance industry opposes the idea of lifting the antitrust exemption it enjoys under the McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945.
Karen Ignagni, president and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans, said in a written statement Wednesday that the Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act would not lower health care costs.
“The rhetoric surrounding repeal of McCarran-Ferguson does not match the reality of the situation,” she said. “Health insurance is one of the most regulated industries in America at both the federal and the state levels. The Act is extremely limited in scope and has nothing to do with competition within the health insurance industry. In fact, a wide range of insurer activities, including mergers and many types of business practices, are and always have been subject to federal antitrust laws and to enforcement by the Department of Justice.”
Democrats, however, point out that Consumer Federation of America estimates that removing the health insurance industry’s anti-trust exemption would lower health insurance premiums by $10 billion next year.
Perriello said his legislation would drive down costs as the health insurance industry would no longer be protected from liability for anti-trust practices such as price fixing, dividing up market territories and bid rigging.
“This is a victory for consumers, competition and common sense,” he said in an interview. “This shows we can bring change you can believe in.”
The bill has the strong support of President Barack Obama, who is hosting a bipartisan summit on health care reform today.
“The repeal of the antitrust exemption in the McCarran-Ferguson Act as it applies to the health insurance industry would give American families and businesses, big and small, more control over their own health care choices by promoting greater insurance competition,” the official White House statement of support said. “The repeal also will outlaw existing, anti-competitive health insurance practices like price fixing, bid rigging, and market allocation that drive up costs for all Americans.”
The idea of lifting the health insurance industry’s anti-trust exemption was included in the House version of comprehensive health care reform that passed in November. The Senate version, however, did not include the provision.
Perriello said the legislation’s huge margin of victory Wednesday bodes well for its chances of winning bipartisan support in the Senate.
Perriello added that other key parts of health care reform could be introduced as single bills, such as his two-page legislation. A chief complaint about last year’s health care reform legislation was that bill was too long and complicated.
Certain a la cart health care reform ideas, Perriello said, could win bipartisan support. A single bill could allow the federal government to negotiate cheaper drug prices, he said. Another could extend health benefits enjoyed by members of Congress to everyday Americans.
Several GOP lawmakers criticized a decision by Democrats to strip out a provision included in an earlier version of the measure that would have allowed health insurance companies to share historical data. Insurers, the Republicans said, need the information about claims to set prices accurately.
Perriello’s political operation pushed hard for the measure’s approval, signing up 2,323 “citizen co-sponsors” in its support.
“We know our effort will face significant opposition in the Senate because the industry lobbyists are already throwing everything and the kitchen sink at this bill,” wrote Chauncey McLean, Perriello’s field director, in an e-mail sent moments after the bill passed. “The U.S. Chamber of Commerce even had the audacity to say they ‘urge the House to reject H.R. 4626 and to consider instead legislation that would lower health care costs, improve the quality of care, and help more Americans obtain access to affordable health care coverage,’ when we know for a fact that they have spent millions of dollars on advertising to kill health care reform.”
The measure was also backed by the Charlottes-ville-based Virginia Organizing Project.
“As a small business owner I support this bill because it is simply asking the health insurance companies to play by the same rules that other businesses have to,” said VOP member Kevin Barnard, owner of Rudy’s Carpet Cleaning in Charlottesville. “These insurance companies are currently exempt from anti-trust laws. That means they can price-gouge their customers and collude with their competitors to create favorable markets. I own a carpet cleaning business and if I got together with other carpet cleaning businesses every month to set the rates, I would be in big trouble.”
Tags: anti-trust exemption, Chamber of Commerce, consumer choice, Fair Competition Act, Health Insurance Industry, McCarran-Ferguson, small business owner