While anxiously awaiting comprehensive health reform legislation to regain a foothold, today the House of Representatives passed a narrower bill that repeals health insurers antitrust exemption. By repealing the 1945 McCarran-Ferguson Act, insurers will be less able to "fix prices, collude with each other, and set their own markets without fear of being investigated", as asserted by the bill's co-sponsors, Reps. Tom Perriello (D-VA) and Betsy Markey (D-CO). Opponents of the measure claim that the legislation is essentially a moot point because state-based regulation already prohibits insurers from engaging in antitrust-related practices. The bill now heads to the Senate where its prospects are, at this point, uncertain.
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