The insurance companies attacked the Democratic health care reform plan this week with report saying it would raise premiums and an angry Congress is hitting back.
A House committee next week will vote on a bill that would end the antitrust exemptions the health insurance industry has enjoyed since 1945. The bill aims to end price-fixing and market allocation conspiracies they say is practiced by the insurance industry.
“These abuses are plainly illegal in other industries, and it does not make sense, when Congress is working so hard to bring meaningful reform to the market in health insurance, that health insurers should continue to be exempted from federal antitrust oversight,” said House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., who will bring the bill up for a vote on Wednesday.
The Senate is considering a similar bill and held a hearing on it last week. Among those who testified was University of Arkansas professor Lawrence Powell, who said the antitrust laws should be left alone because they allow insurance companies to share information in order to price services effectively.
It’s not likely, though, that the insurance companies will win this one. Congressional Democrats are essentially on the warpath against the industry after they released a report they commissioned on health insurance reform that concludes legislation now under consideration would increase premium $4,000 by 2019.
