Currently, leaders in Congress are working to draft of bill that reconciles differences between the House and Senate versions. The House healthcare bill includes language to repeal the antitrust exemption, whereas the Senate’s does not, according to the release.
“For nearly 65 years, the insurance industry has been exempt from Federal antitrust laws,” the Senators wrote in the letter. “Regulation of the insurance industry has been left with the states, which often lack the time and resources to effectively investigate antitrust conspiracies. Thus, the competitive activities of health insurers and medical malpractice insurers remain effectively unchecked. While there are divergent views on the best way to introduce choice and competition into health insurance market, we can surely agree that health and medical malpractice insurers should not be allowed to collude to set prices and allocate markets.”
The letter was signed by Sen. Leahy and Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.), Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Russ Feingold (D-Wis.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Roland Burris (D-Ill.), Ted Kaufman (D-Del.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.).
Sen. Leahy has over the past months advocated for the repeal of the health insurance’s exemption from federal antitrust laws, including the introduction of the Health Insurance Industry Antitrust Enforcement Act in September and filing the Health Insurance Industry Antitrust Enforcement Act as an amendment to the Senate’s bill in December.
Read the release on the health insurance industry’s antitrust exemption.
