Rep. Conyers Introduces Health Care Industry Antitrust Enforcement Act

WASHINGTON, Jan. 3 -- Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., issued the following speech, which was published in the Congressional Record on Jan. 3, introducing the Health Care Industry Antitrust Enforcement Act:

Mr. Speaker, the Health Insurance Industry Antitrust Enforcement Act of 2017 would eliminate the antitrust immunity provided under the McCarran-Ferguson Act for price fixing, bid rigging, and market allocation by health insurance issuers and medical malpractice insurers. The purpose of this bill is to extend antitrust enforcement over health insurers and medical malpractice insurance issuers as to the most egregious antitrust violations. Such insurers currently enjoy broad antitrust immunity under the McCarran-Ferguson Act. This immunity has shielded insurance companies for decades for activities that would otherwise constitute illegal and grossly anticompetitive conduct. Our Nation's antitrust laws exist to protect free-market competition and this bill will help to restore competition to the health insurance marketplace.

The House Judiciary Committee held numerous hearings on the effects of the insurance industry's antitrust exemption. It has become clear that the exemption is not needed to enable the insurance industry to provide services to their policyholders, and that policyholders and the economy in general would benefit from increased competition among insurance providers. Indeed, this is why four members of the Antitrust Modernization Commission recommended repealing the McCarran-Ferguson antitrust exemption in the Commission's 2007 report. Commissioners Jonathan Jacobson, Debra Valentine, and John Warden wrote that the exemption has "outlived any utility [it] may have had," and Commissioner John Shenefield wrote that it is "among the most ill- conceived and egregious examples" of antitrust exemptions and that its repeal "should not be delayed."

The bill I introduce today is intended to root out unlawful activity in an industry that has grown complacent by decades of protection from antitrust oversight. And, particularly in light of efforts to undermine the Affordable Care Act, repealing this unjustified antitrust exemption for health insurers will further ensure more affordable health insurance for Americans.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

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