Should the health care industry lose their anti trust exemption?

Similar questions: health care industry lose anti trust exemption.

The Democrats warn health insurers they could lose antitrust exemption. WASHINGTON -- Days after the insurance lobby began an aggressive campaign against a Senate plan to overhaul the nation's health-care system, senior Democrats fired back, threatening Wednesday to revoke the industry's long-standing antitrust exemption. More health reform newsHealth insurance is one of only a few industries exempted from certain federal antitrust regulations, and Sen.

Charles Schumer, Democrat of New York, said the exemption was "one of the worst accidents of American history. It deserves a lot of the blame for the huge rise in premiums that has made health insurance so unaffordable. "Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, and Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, joined Schumer in a stinging denunciation of health industry practices, but the insurance lobby dismissed their threat as "a political ploy."The dispute came as House leaders pushed off a vote on health care until the first week in November and as Reid and other Senate leaders met for the first time with senior White House officials to discuss how to craft compromise legislation.

Gh on their agenda was the array of contentious matters that must be resolved before a bill can come before the full Senate. Among them is whether to create a government-run insurance plan, whether to fine people who do not purchase insurance, and whether to require employers to offer coverage to their workers. Meanwhile, Senate Democrats sought Wednesday to shore up the support of a critical player in the health-care debate: the American Medical Association.

Senate leaders met with representatives of the AMA and other doctors' groups, then said they would press to repeal within days a decade-old law that subjects physicians who treat Medicare patients to regular pay cuts. The repeal would increase the federal budget deficit by nearly $250 billion over the next decade, but the influential organizations, whose members will face a 21 percent pay cut in January, had demanded a resolution to the issue as part of any health-care overhaul."It wipes the slate clean," said one representative from the medical associations who participated in a meeting Wednesday with Reid, Finance Chairman Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, and Sen. Christopher Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut.

Instead of fighting pay cuts, the participant said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe a private meeting, doctors could pursue pay "updates."The first of those updates -- giving Medicare doctors a 0.5 percent pay increase in 2010 -- will remain in the Senate health-care bill, Democratic aides said. But by repealing future pay cuts before the debate reaches the floor, the chamber's leaders hope to short-circuit any Republican plans to add the expensive repeal to the larger bill, which could threaten its prospects for passage. The move could, however, trigger a fight with House leaders, who want the Senate to approve strict pay-as-you-go budget rules before consenting to such a large increase in future deficits.

Experts differ on the potential impact of repealing insurers' antitrust exemption. David Dranove, a professor of health industry management at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management, said it could harm consumers, because the exemption permits health insurers to exchange information about their medical risks when deciding whether to sell them coverage. David Balto, a former Federal Trade Commission official, described it differently: "This is a very expansive exemption that costs consumers hundreds of millions of dollars.It permits anti-competitive conduct that would not be permitted in any other market," he said.

Robert Zirkelbach, press secretary for the group America's Health Insurance Plans, contested that view. "The health insurance industry is one of the most regulated industries in America," subject to regulators at the federal and state levels, he said."The focus on this issue is a political ploy designed to distract attention away from the real issues in this debate. " Sources: http://www.cleveland.com/nation/index.ssf/2009/10/democrats_warn_health_insurers.html .

Health insurance industry could lose anti-trust exemption WASHINGTON, DC—Days after the health insurance industry openly declared it will use the emerging health care reform overhaul as an excuse to raise premiums on millions of Americans, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) urged Wednesday that the legislation should include a new provision to revoke the industry’s anti-trust exemption. schumer.senate.gov/new_websit....cfm?id=... DeFazio in the house has been pushing this since March.

Still, the murky issue still remains as to who enforces anti-trust rules: states or the feds. What is the republican defense of the health insurance monopoly? Could it be that so-called socialized government-run healthcare is a monopoly too?

Single payer does not eliminate private insurers. Sources: forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?t=221829 .

I don't understand why they've been able to operate like a Columbian drug cartel anyway.

3 The state of Maine has only one health care company. Isn't that in itself a monopoly? .

The state of Maine has only one health care company. Isn't that in itself a monopoly?

I think his sign pretty much says it all. " "In Florida, do I lose my Homestead Exemption if I put my housein trust for my children?" "Health care?

Opinions on 10th admendent with health care.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.