The Sunshine Report

Congressman Ryan, Should Predatory Pricing Cartels Really Run Health Care?

The med­ical insur­ance game is rigged. Med­ical insur­ance com­pa­nies have spe­cial legal pro­tec­tions that pro­mote anti-competitive behav­ior. Since 1944 they have been exempt from vir­tu­ally all the anti-trust laws that apply to other indus­tries and under­pin the foun­da­tion of our national economy.

Under the terms of the insur­ance exemp­tion, health insur­ance com­pa­nies can col­lude with one another, fix prices, rig bids and form car­tels. Preda­tory pric­ing by health insur­ance com­pa­nies is OK. These prac­tices — nor­mally ille­gal under fed­eral anti-trust reg­u­la­tion— are pro­tected by law.

Even worse, health insur­ance com­pa­nies don’t have to worry about being sued if they hurt some­one — they aren’t sub­ject to tort lia­bil­ity and as a prac­ti­cal mat­ter can’t be sued for mess­ing up a claim or deny­ing cov­er­age. [read full story]