Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has introduced an amendment to S.3217, the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010, which the Senate is currently considering, to repeal the antitrust exemption for the health insurance industry.

The amendment is based upon legislation the senator had submitted to Congress last year, the Health Insurance Industry Antitrust Enforcement Act of 2009. That bill is still under consideration by the Senate, but the House overwhelmingly passed the act this year (See, DM 11796), and the Obama administration supports the measure.

Senator Leahy introduced the amendment, with 22 other co-sponsors, which encompasses his original legislation applying antitrust laws to health sector insurers. The act would amend the 1945 McCarran-Ferguson Act, stating: "Nothing contained in this Act shall modify, impair, or supersede the operation of any of the antitrust laws with respect to the business of health insurance." Antitrust laws include the Clayton Act (which prohibits certain conduct not conducive to a competitive market) and section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act with regard to unfair methods of competition.


"The recent economic crisis showed all of us that corporations do not act responsibly without adequate oversight," Senator Leahy said in a press release. "It is important to remember that there is another industry that is not required even to play by the same rules of competition as everyone else. Benefiting from a six-decade-old special interest exemption, the health insurance industry is not subject to the nation's antitrust laws. We can surely agree that health insurers should not be allowed to collude to fix prices and allocate markets."

Leahy, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, held a hearing on repealing the exemption in October of last year. (See, DM 10492.) Supporters of repealing the antitrust exemption for the health insurance industry include Christine Varney, the Assistant Attorney General for the Antitrust Division at the Department of Justice, who had testified at the hearing, the Consumer Federation of America, the American Hospital Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Dental Association as well as attorneys general from nine states.

Adapted in part from a press release by Senator Leahy.

Link: http://leahy.senate.gov/press/press_releases/release/?id=827caf11-ce71-4dca-8b2b-4a70b3342e37

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