The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday approved a bill removing the federal antitrust exemption for health and medical malpractice insurers.
The bill, which cleared the committee by a 20-9 vote, calls for ending the exemption to ensure these insurers “cannot engage in price fixing, bid rigging, or market allocations to the detriment of competition and consumers.” The exemption was granted under the 1945 McCarran-Ferguson Act, which defers insurance regulation to the states.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is planning to include the measure in the healthcare reform package that Democrats hope to bring before the full House in November, according to a report today in the Washington Post. A companion bill has been introduced in the Senate.
