Calif. Public Employees' Retirement System Issues Public Comment to FTC

TARGETED NEWS SERVICE (founded 2004) features non-partisan 'edited journalism' news briefs and information for news organizations, public policy groups and individuals; as well as 'gathered' public policy information, including news releases, reports, speeches. For more information contact MYRON STRUCK, editor, editor@targetednews.com, Springfield, Virginia; 703/304-1897; https://targetednews.com

WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 -- Don Moulds, Chief Health Director, California Public Employees' Retirement System, has issued a public comment to the Federal Trade Commission. The comment was written on Sept. 18, 2023, and posted on Sept. 19, 2023.

The comment, on Docket No. FTC-2023-0043, was sent to Lina M. Khan, Chair; and Merrick B. Garland, Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice.

Here are excerpts:

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On behalf of the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), thank you for the opportunity to provide comments on the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Draft Merger Guidelines, which clarify and update the frameworks and tools that may be used when analyzing a merger.

These draft guidelines align with our stated health care legislative priorities and ongoing strategies to provide more accessible and affordable quality health care to our members and we applaud your careful and concerted efforts to help mitigate the increasing costs of health care.

CalPERS is the largest public employer health benefits purchaser in California and the second largest employer purchaser in the nation after the federal government.

We purchase health benefits for approximately 1.5 million active and retired state, local government and school employees and their family members.

We contract with numerous large health insurance companies to provide our members a variety of health plan offerings that include health maintenance, preferred provider, and exclusive provider organization (HMO, PPO, and EPO) plans. CalPERS recognizes the need for affordable health plans and the continuity of health care coverage for our members and their dependents and we believe greater competition promotes lower prices, higher quality, and greater value to our members.

We believe consolidated health care markets reduce competition and have been shown to increase health care costs.

The Draft Merger Guidelines establish consistent and unequivocal guidance on the types of transactions that may trigger an investigation by the DOJ and FTC and can help ensure that the likelihood of consumers being forced to pay more for health care as a result of unlawful or monopolistic mergers will be greatly reduced moving forward.

Don Moulds

Chief Health Director

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Original text here: https://downloads.regulations.gov/FTC-2023-0043-1499/attachment_2.pdf

TARGETED NEWS SERVICE (founded 2004) features non-partisan 'edited journalism' news briefs and information for news organizations, public policy groups and individuals; as well as 'gathered' public policy information, including news releases, reports, speeches. For more information contact MYRON STRUCK, editor, editor@targetednews.com, Springfield, Virginia; 703/304-1897; https://targetednews.com