Gesture politics: Repealing the antitrust exemption for health insurers
Here’s the roll call vote in the House last night to repeal a longstanding antitrust exemption for health insurers.
So, how exactly does this help families struggling with health insurance costs?
Not much.
USA Today makes the gesture politics clear:
“I’m proud of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for standing up for a common sense bill,” Rep. Betsy Markey, D-Colo., said in a statement after the vote. “Long ago, the insurance industry got a special deal from Washington. Big health insurance companies could conspire with each other to fix prices, divide territories and never be punished for it. It’s wrong, and this bill fixes it–once and for all.”
But it’s not clear that was happening in a widespread way. In a report last year, the non-partisan partisan Congressional Budget Office wrote that the provision “would apply to a small number of offenders.” In another report, the CBO predicts that “implementing those provisions would have no significant effects on either the federal budget or the premiums that private insurers charged for health insurance.”
In a statement, Karen Ignagni, president of the insurance industry group America’s Health Insurance Plans, said the bill attempts to “solve a problem that doesn’t exist.”
The point of this Demcare “reform” isn’t actual reform. It’s all about the demagoguery.
Via Kaiser News:
Roll Call: The vote “split the House Republican leadership: Minority Leader John Boehner (Ohio) and a small band of conservatives voted to preserve the exemption, while Minority Whip Eric Cantor (Va.) and the bulk of the Republican Conference backed the measure. Democrats unanimously supported the measure, with a parade of endangered freshmen coming to the floor to extol the measure as a common-sense way to increase competition and fight higher health insurance rates. … And some Republicans who opposed the measure, including Rep. Scott Garrett (N.J.), warned it could raise premiums instead of lowering them because it would expose insurance companies to the costs of antitrust lawsuits” (Dennis, 2/24).
National Underwriter, an insurance trade journal, adds, “The bill would repeal the antitrust exemption afforded the business of health insurance – but not the business of medical malpractice insurance – by the McCarran-Ferguson Act.” An insurance industry trade group, America’s Health Insurance Plans, said the repeal ” is likely to do more harm than good” (Postal, 2/24).
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From the people who lost $18 million over 7 years managing thier restaraunt. That’s an indicator of their expertise.
Fixed that for Miss Betsy.
Why should any industry have an antitrust exemption, yes including baseball?
Yes, the thing is being sold as if it would save money. The thing is being faught as if it would cost money. Each motive is weakened because they are grandstanding and solicits emotion. Yep, the smell of demogoguery is in the air.
Far more important is that a belief in free market capitalism includes, but is not limited to, no antitrust exemptions. Free market capitalism invites, encourages and produces competition, and that should be reason, and motive, enough to eliminate antitrust exemptions, and yes including baseball.
Why should any industry have an antitrust exemption, yes including baseball?
Yes, the thing is being sold as if it would save money. The thing is being faught as if it would cost money. Each motive is weakened because they are grandstanding and solicits emotion. Yep, the smell of demogoguery is in the air.
Far more important is that a belief in free market capitalism includes, but is not limited to, no antitrust exemptions. Free market capitalism invites, encourages and produces competition, and that should be reason, and motive, enough to eliminate antitrust exemptions, and yes including baseball.
Sounds like Obama wants to do to Healthcare what he’s planning to do with the EPA on Global Warming. Use his federal cronies to take any and everyone he can to task in court?
Will the consequences differ significantly from the stated intent? Of course. So it has been and so it shall always be. But note the phrase “stated intent.” As prices rise, the democrats and not a few republicans will scream “You see. The free market has failed again!” and they will demand more regulation and intervention by the wise and all-knowing government. That is the real intent. So the racket continues. At all costs the very concept of a free market must be destroyed and on that measure congress is succeeding very well indeed.
Another gift to the trial lawyers.
Baseball? Baseball? BASEBALL?
Z, Z ! ! ! ! you, you, you… Communist.
Pitchers and catchers have reported. Life returns to our planet……..
They won’t deal with one of the most important anti-trust issues – the inability to sell insurance across state lines.
And Manny Ramirez beat them to camp. Hope returns.
BTW, regarding the Anthony “Total” Weiner link, perhaps, if he is going to make those statements, he shouldn’t take money from insurance companies, such as AIG, as he did during the 2008 cycle.
Seriously, it’s a red herring. It’s supposed to be a big slap in the face to insurance companies. It won’t make any difference at all except it will cost the federal government money to pay lawyers to work irrelevant cases.
Nobody in the industry that I know of cared about anti-trust stuff. It won’t affect anything.
Great! Obama got a win. How about a new vote on whether or not a week should have 7 days? Every state still makes its own laws, rules, and regulations that insurance companies have to face that most other industries don’t.
Imagine having different standards for laundry detergent in each state. If you sell laundry detergent, you have to get approval in every state that you sell your product in. That’s the kind of regulation that insurance companies go through.
anti-trust? who thinks it will do anything? This is just a ‘respect mah authoritah’ bill. Posturing to ‘prove’ you have power.
LOL.
Thanks. I really did chuckle.
You represent what is best about our country and our people, despite policy disagreements we can still have a sense of humor about things.
Good on you. Good on me. Good on all of us.
On Day 86 of not having the temperature reach 40 degrees here and after a -9 degree overnight low on FEBRUARY 25, I admit to “losing it.”
Trapped in a frozen h@11 with two feet of snow covering the baseball field across the road!
On a serious note, I have always wondered about baseball’s anti-trust exemption. I really do not understand the ramifications for or against having it.
The Federal Government itself is at the core of all the problems with healthcare. They need to deregulate to allow for interstate competition, and pass true tort reform.
Corruption and cost inefficiencies always follow ill-advised, government tampering with the market. Mix in the variable of statist politics and you have a real mess.
Growl, snarl, grrrrrrrr, still whining, wimpering, and kicking the dog over the loss of Juan Pierre to the White Sox.
Who in Sam Hill made that decision?
Frustrated life-long Dodger fan…….
Nothing Obama and the Dems are offering will lower health insurance costs or make it more accessible; they’re misleading the public when they say otherwise. Removing interstate barriers and enacting real tort reform are the two most effective and direct routes of making insurance more available and affordable for Americans that want it, but, so far, Obama-Dems are unwilling to earnestly consider either option.
From how I understand this issue, these state “monopolies” were imposed by the government in exchange for the insurance companies agreeing to cooperate with regulators but needed an exemption from anti-trust laws.
Having removed this exemption, the logical thing is to follow through on the other half of the deal and restore inter-state competition.
Exactly Phil: But ZZ we both know some greedy bastard insurance company will now start offering his insurance in other states and without our gubmint acting, it will happen. Do you guys remember when lawyers couldn’t advertise? Let’s go back to that cause if I see one more mesothelioma class action advertisement I will hurl.
From what I understand, it was the States that wanted the anti-trust exemption. That way there was more state control over health insurance than federal. I’ll have to check into it, though, but that’s what I recall.
Actually if I remember correctly it was about vertical integration with health insurers owning hospitals. Under the HMO Act of 1978, Kennedy got a anti trust exception that allowed Insurers to own and operate hospitals which resulted in 2200 hospitals closings after they passed the HMO bill.
Until then is was against anti trust laws for insurers to own and operate hospitals.