Posted on 11/01/2009 3:21:45 PM PST by Libloather
"Let’s Play Monopoly"
Jim Longworth
October 30th / November 1st, 2009
If you want proof that Congress is collegially corrupted and gratuitously gridlocked, look no further than Sen. Harry Reid’s recent power play in which he used the McCarran-Ferguson Act as his weapon of mass distraction.
McCarran-Ferguson (which I will affectionately refer to as “MF”) was passed in 1945, ostensibly to protect the “business of insurance”. In effect, the Act established that Federal anti trust laws would not necessarily apply to companies like our modern day Blue Cross Blue Shield. But MF included a loophole. It also empowered Congress to pass laws “in the future” that could essentially regulate health insurance companies. The latter provision is a sword that Congress hasn’t had to pull until earlier this month. That’ s when Senate Democrats, who saw the public option slipping away, and who thought they had bent over backwards to accommodate the insurance industry, were angered when that same industry announced premiums would rise as a result of healthcare reform.
And so, Reid, along with other Democrat buddies like Pat Leahy, announced they would seek to repeal any anti trust exemptions that the insurance industry had enjoyed under MF. The gauntlet that Reid threw down sent momentary shock waves through the executive offices of health insurance companies. After all, a loss of the exemption could mean that large monopolies like Blue Cross might be broken up (much like AT&T had been) and would no longer be able to legally collude with its few mega-competitors, like United Health Care and Aetna, to set rates and policies. Obama soon followed Reid into the fray. Speaking on his radio and internet address, the President bashed health insurance executives for taking huge salaries and bonuses, “while enjoying a privileged exemption from our antitrust laws”.
Some observers believe that Obama and Reid are using the threat of McCarran-Ferguson to force the health insurance lobby into releasing their hold over hundreds of Congressmen who had been told not to vote for a public option. Whether the Dems’ sabre rattling is for real, remains to be seen. Either way, I am angry at old Harry and young Barack for their hypocrisy and tardiness. They should have played the anti trust card long ago, and fought to actually make it stick.
As far back as 2006, the American Medical Association went on record saying that healthcare insurance companies enjoyed a virtual monopoly. Among the AMA’s findings were examples of a healthcare system controlled by a privileged few insurance executives. In Maine, only two companies control 88% of the health insurance market. In Missouri, only two companies control 79% of the market. In North Dakota, just one company controls 89% of the market. And across America, 94% of markets are not competitive.
Yet in spite of these staggering statistics, Congress and the White House have dragged their feet when it comes to reigning in insurance monopolies. Earlier this year Obama let big pharma off the hook when he agreed not to press for price breaks to medicare patients, or an open flow of cheaper drugs from Canada.
So forgive me if I am a bit skeptical about the Administration’s verbal threats aimed at the insurance industry. For all we know, MF is just a smokescreen to ensure that the uninsured get coverage. Or, it could be an effort to get a weakened form of public option that is more like a co-op program which each state can opt out of. I hope I’m wrong about Reid and company’ s motives, but something tells me when the dust settles, the big insurance companies will still be free to raise premiums anytime they wish, and continue to monopolize the markets, no matter which version of healthcare reform passes. In addition, if Obama does make a deal to mandate coverage for everyone, companies like Blue Cross will profit even more from the acquisition of 47 million new customers. And don’t worry if the formerly uninsured population can’t pay for their new coverage, because the rest of us will be mandated to subsidize them.
Teddy Roosevelt, the original trust-buster, must be spinning in his grave at Obama’s lack luster and duplicitous use of the bully pulpit to weaken the health insurance monopolies. Meanwhile, the insurance industry is spinning legislation designed to improve their bottom line by denying coverage to those of us who are trying to stay out of the grave. Appropriately, all this talk of grave spinning comes on the heels of Halloween. That’s the season in which politicians like Reid can trick us with hollow bravado, leaving us alone to hand out big treats to insurance companies. It’s enough to bust a man’s trust in government.
He ain't the only one.
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