Posted on 02/24/2010 2:43:28 PM PST by Former Military Chick
Washington (CNN) -- The House voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to repeal the antitrust exemption currently granted to health insurance companies.
The vote was 406-19 to repeal the exemption, which has been in place since the end of World War II. The 19 who voted against the repeal are Republicans.
Liberal Democrats have said a repeal would help inject competition into the health care industry while reducing consumer costs.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Tuesday that President Obama strongly supports the repeal. "At its core, health reform is all about ensuring that American families and businesses have more choices, benefit from more competition and have greater control over their own health care," Gibbs said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Anti-Trust is just a political tool by which politicians go after the companies they don’t like. There is no such thing as a stable private monopoly. Only governments are able to create monopolies because only force can prevent competition.
but govt interference isn’t natural. You’re giving Eric Holder a lot of power over the industry but people will still won’t be able to buy insurance across state lines.
I heard one argument that it would open the door to anti-trust litigation that would drive up costs.
That said, exempting one industry and not others does not seem prudent or fair to me.
Viva McCain!
Reintroducing more punitive regulation when the market needs deregulation.
Right. By all means, let’s do all we can to keep rates up so we DO end up with government deathcare.
At the end of WWII and for about thirty years following, there was valid reason for the exemption, but there hasn’t been for the last thirty years. The entire anti-trust exemption has evolved into an annuity for lawyers. Rates were able to be kept artificially high to feed the lawsuits and the anti-trust exemption was a big piece of the infrastructure needed to maintain high revenue streams for the beast. Anytime you eliminate or minimize competition in production and supply, the price of the product will rise. This is one of the most fundamental principles of economics.
What troubles me is doing this BEFORE changing the law about buying across state lines. Never trust the rats, or many of the pubs either, for that matter.
Competition is a good thing.
You'll find no disagreement from me with that statement.
Now couple this with being able to purchase insurance policies across state lines.
Just wait until you see what having more than 6 companies in California can do to costs. 1,400 health plans/providers nationwide and just .4% of them can/will do business in the country’s largest state market.
“That said, exempting one industry and not others does not seem prudent or fair to me. “
so let’s exempt more industries. We should strive to find ways we can reduce govt control, not increase it to make things equal. Otherwise, you’d have to raise the capital gains tax so that it has the same rate as the income tax.
Just another way of trying to destroy private insurance companies and force people to go to the government.
Idiots. In normal times I might support this. But not with the socialist troika in charge, and not in the midst of a financial meltdown.
* House votes to put health insurers under antitrust law
* Bill no longer includes medical malpractice insurers
Supporters portrayed the bill as a way to tamp down sharply rising health insurance costs, such as those from WellPoint Inc (WLP.N), which raised rates an average of 25 percent for some Anthem Blue Cross customers in California.
WellPoint Chief Executive Angela Braly, at a hearing on the issue on Wednesday, said the company was concerned that it would lose the ability to share data with other companies. “It’s not going to affect healthcare costs one way or another,” she said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2419234420100224
This decision is nothing more than the opening salvo in a new wave of legislation to clamp down on private industry as a whole.
Companies compete because they want to make a big profit. They want to be the next Microsoft. If the govt is saying you can’t get too big then that takes away the incentive to compete aggressively.
Dems Get Religion on Health Care Antitrust Exemption
Suddenly the Obama administration decided to come out against the antitrust exemption for the insurance industry. Like they only just noticed the problem.
The insurance antitrust exemption has been an outrage for over fifty years. The original bill formalizing the industry’s exemption from the Sherman Antitrust Act, the McCarran-Ferguson Act, was dreamed up by two Hollywood villains. Nevada Senator Pat McCarran was the inspiration for the “Senator Pat Geary” character in Godfather Part II (”Senator… my final offer is this: nothing” — that guy), while Homer Ferguson was the inspiration for the Lloyd Bridges character in Tucker who whored himself out for the auto makers to get Tucker’s new car struck from the market. These two gigantic assholes teamed up to help the insurance industry avoid the albatross of competitive pricing.
McCarran-Ferguson was supposed to be temporary. Franklin Roosevelt clearly thought so when he signed it into law in 1944, saying that after “a moratorium period,” the antitrust laws “will be applicable in full force and effect to the business of insurance.” The law was supposed to expire in 1947. It didn’t.
http://trueslant.com/matttaibbi/2010/02/24/dems-get-religion-on-health-care-antitrust-exemption/
Yep. Instant drop in premiums. Anthem Blue Cross in CA announced a 39% rate hike. That was probably the straw that broke the camel’s back.
I don't doubt someone made that argument, but lack of competition will drive up costs more than anti-trust litigation. In fact, if there's not some evidence of a monopoly or price colusion, I doubt there would be any anti-trust litigation.
And next is the Justice department massive lawssuits against insurance companies. Bah Bye
Long overdue. Didn’t Reagan talk about doing that, but the Dems blocked him???
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