WASHINGTON BUREAU — A group of 19 Democratic senators is still trying to get an antitrust exemption repeal provision into the final version of the health bill.
The provision would strip exemption protection from health insurers and medical liability insurers.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, drafted the letter, and 18 other Democratic senators joined in signing it.
The letter was sent to President Obama; Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.; and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. – the leaders of efforts to reconcile the House health bill, H.R. 3962, with the Senate health bill, H.R. 3950.
"For nearly 65 years, the insurance industry has been exempt from federal antitrust laws," Leahy and his colleagues write 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."
Because of that lack of oversight, "the competitive activities of health insurers and medical malpractice insurers remain effectively unchecked," the senators write. "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 House health bill contains an antitrust exemption repeal provision, and the Senate bill does not, the senators note.
In the Senate, the senators write, 23 members have co-sponsored an exemption repeal amendment.
"Regrettably, there was no opportunity for it to be offered during Senate debate" on H.R. 3950, the senators write.
Health insurers have argued that the exemption applies mainly to the collection and analysis of claims data, and that antitrust laws and other laws already prohibit health insurers from monopolizing markets or conspiring to increase rates.
Medical liability insurers are waging a vigorous campaign against the proposed repeal provision.
The Property Casualty Insurers Association of America, Des Plaines, Ill., says in an advertisement that appears today in a Washington political newspaper that applying a repeal provision to medical liability insurers could lead "us into another medical malpractice crisis across the country."
Loss of access to medical underwriting data could be especially damaging to the joint underwriting associations operating in states such as Florida and Texas, the PCI says.
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