NU Online News Service, March 20, 9:45 a.m.EST

Update, 3/21, 10:25 a.m.: The amendment wasadvanced to the House floor, but expressly excludes P&C.See today's story.

A House panel will consider today whether to clear forHouse-floor action later this week three amendments to healthcarelegislation that would remove the McCarran-Ferguson Act antitrustexemption for health and medical-malpractice insurance.

A concerned industry has scheduled a conference call to discussthe proposed amendments, the second industry-wide issue dealingwith the issue within a week.

Industry officials were not available to comment last night.

The House Rules Committee will consider the three amendments ata meeting scheduled for 3 p.m. today. A total of 20 amendments havebeen proposed.

The Rules panel is the gatekeeper for House-floor action,setting the rules for debate as well as determining whichamendments to clear for floor action.

The legislation in question is H.R. 5, the “Help Efficient,Accessible, Low-cost, Timely Healthcare (HEALTH) Act.”

House-floor debate is scheduled for Thursday.

Efforts to add amendments ending the anti-trust exemptionaccorded to health-insurance providers under McCarran-Ferguson haveraised concerns within the insurance industry.

The industry was anticipating that Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., would introducean amendment repealing McCarran-Ferguson, but were unclear whetherthe repeal would apply to both medical-liability insurance andhealth insurance.

Gosar did introduce his amendment Monday, but it covered onlythe “business of health insurance.”

However, Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., Maxine Waters, D-Calif.,and Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., also introduced amendments dealing withMcCarran-Ferguson.

A Conyers-Waters amendment would end the antitrust exemption formedical-malpractice insurance, as well as provide the Federal TradeCommission authority to extend its powers to prevent “unfairmethods of competition.”

The DeFazio amendment applies only to health insurance, but itwould extend the power of the federal government to address “unfairmethods of competition.”

The purpose of the larger bill to which the amendment isattached is to repeal a provision of the healthcare-reform law thatcreates the Independent Payment Advisory Board, which is a15-member board designed to find ways to reduce growth in Medicarespending.

According to analysts at Washington Analysis, “At one point,there were almost 20 Democratic co-sponsors.”

But efforts to pay for the bill by imposing new limits onmedical malpractice lawsuits have “eroded much of that support,”the analysts say.

In any case, the analysts say, “the opposition of SenateDemocrats and President Obama ensures that it would not be signedinto law regardless of the level of support in the House.”