Dentist congressman Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) introduced legislation February 28 to amend the 1945 McCarran-Ferguson Act, which exempted the health insurance industry from antitrust laws. H.R. 911, The Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act of 2013, would restore the application of federal antitrust laws to the business of health insurance.
The American Dental Association, which has long supported repeal of the antitrust exemption, will seek to build bipartisan support for H.R. 911 in the 113th Congress.
“As a practicing dentist for 25 years, I have experienced first-hand the difficulties patients face with their insurance companies,” Rep. Gosar said. “My legislation would restore competition within the health insurance market and apply antitrust laws. Amending the McCarran-Ferguson Act will benefit patients across the country with lower prices and more choices.”
SECTION 1. This Act may be cited as the “Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act of 2013”
SECTION 2. FINDINGS
The Congress finds the following:
(1) Open, free, and fair competition has made the United States the strongest economy in the world.
(2) As a general proposition, Government should ensure that no industry obtains an unfair competitive advantage and that the playing field is equal. The Congress should not play favorites with certain industries or special interest groups by exempting one group from the general application of the law.
(3) There is no factual basis supporting any further exemption of the health insurance industry from Federal antitrust and unfair competition laws.
(4) Enforcement of these laws is most appropriately done through the U.S. Department of Justice, and in the case of aggrieved individuals through private actions as set forth in the existing statutes.
SECTION 3. PURPOSE
It is the purpose of this Act to ensure that health insurance issuers are subject to the same antitrust and unfair trade practices laws that all businesses have had to comply with and to more effectively ensure that these issuers would be subject to Federal laws against price fixing, bid rigging, or market allocations to the detriment of competition and consumers. This Act remedies a special exemption provided by Congress in 1945 to respond to the United States Supreme Court decision entitled United States v. South-Eastern Underwriters Association, wherein the Court correctly held that the Federal Government could regulate insurance companies under the authority of the commerce clause in the Constitution. This Act would also retain enforcement of these laws with State and Federal law enforcement agencies and allow private causes of action by aggrieved consumers harmed by unfair trade practices.