Leahy Seeks Antitrust Waiver Repeal

NU Online News Service, Sept. 18, 3:12 p.m. EDT

Health care delivery system reform legislation unveiled Wednesday by Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., allows cafeteria plans to offer qualified long-term care insurance–a priority of the LTC industry.

The powerful chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday introduced legislation that would repeal the antitrust waiver provided under the McCarran-Ferguson Act for health and medical malpractice insurance companies.

The bill is an obvious attempt to put pressure on the health insurance industry, as well as Republicans in Congress, to support health care delivery reform legislation now being pushed in Congress by Democrats and the Obama administration.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said in introducing his legislation, "A few industries have used their influence to obtain a special, statutory exemption from the antitrust laws, and the insurance industry is one of them."

He added, "In the markets for health insurance and medical malpractice insurance, patients and doctors are paying the price, as costs continue to increase at an alarming rate. Insurers should not object to being subject to the same antitrust laws as everyone else."

Sen. Leahy said provisions of his "Health Insurance Industry Antitrust Enforcement Act" would repeal the federal antitrust exemption for health insurance and medical malpractice insurance companies, for what he called "flagrant antitrust violations," including price-fixing, bid-rigging and market allocations.

He argued that as a result of his bill, health insurers and medical malpractice insurers would be subject to the same good-competition laws that apply to virtually every other company doing business in the United States.

"We should not lose sight of the fact that the health insurance industry currently does not have to play by the same, good-competition rules as other industries," Sen. Leahy said. "That is wrong, and the Health Insurance Industry Antitrust Enforcement Act corrects it."

Sen. Leahy noted that in 2007, as part of the controversy regarding handling of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita by the insurance industry, he and Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., then a Republican, introduced legislation that would have repealed the McCarran-Ferguson Act. Sen. Leahy also noted he had introduced similar legislation in past years.