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Leahy To Introduce Amendment To Repeal Insurers' Anti-trust Exemption

Rachel Slajda | December 1, 2009, 12:39PM

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Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT)

Antitrust Exemption, Health Care, Patrick Leahy

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Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) announced today that he will introduce an amendment to the Senate health care reform bill that will repeal the anti-trust exemption granted to health insurers.

"This amendment will prohibit the most egregious anticompetitive conduct - price fixing, bid rigging and market allocations - conduct that harms consumers, raises health care costs, and for which there is no justification," Leahy said in a statement. Leahy had also introduced a separate bill repealing the exemption in September.

The House version of the bill also has a provision to end the exemption.

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Indie Pro

December 1, 2009 12:45 PM

I look forward to it passing!

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midnight rambler

December 1, 2009 2:29 PM

While this isone of those things that sounds like it would be great, one of the things that makes our health care system so screwed up may make things turn for the worse if it passes, at least in isolation. The whole system of negotiated rates means that small insurers get poor rates and pay several times what larger insurers pay for the same procedure. It makes no sense but that's how it works almost everywhere. So it's usually actually cheaper when you have only one big insurer because they can demand lower rates from hospitals.

If this passes, it needs to be inconjunction with something to set consistent rates across the board, like in Maryland. But that doesn't seem likely.

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December 1, 2009 2:35 PM in reply to midnight rambler

So it's usually actually cheaper when you have only one big insurer because they can demand lower rates from hospitals.

except that it isn't, because hospitals and insurance companies are engaged in a racket that keeps prices high between them. ever known an uninsured to receive a hospital bill? you call up the hospital and they hack most of it off. medical costs are completely made up and inflated to the benefit of the participants. completely made up.

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Cool Blue Reason

December 1, 2009 2:49 PM

It was interesting that Reid took this out of the bill to start with -- I wonder if it wasn't purely intended to force the GOP senators into a roll call vote on the amendment.

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