One reason health insurance companies are so strong and controlling is that they are exempt from antitrust regulations, allowing them to conspire on premium pricing…………………
By JR Wells III
NOV 26, 2017
SOURCE: www.post-gazette.coMm
The Nov. 23 article “Single-payer Health Care Gains Advocates” brings to mind Paul Harvey’s line, “now for the rest of the story.” Yes, there are 120 co-sponsors to Rep. John Conyers’ HR 676, which would expand Medicare to a single-payer system, but all are liberal Democrats. In a House controlled by the Republican majority, a bill needs to have Republican support to get anywhere. Obviously, it has none. Under a single-payer monopoly, as with any noncompetitive system, costs would skyrocket and quality would decrease.
One reason health insurance companies are so strong and controlling is that they are exempt from antitrust regulations, allowing them to conspire on premium pricing. This exemption was granted to them by the McCarran-Ferguson Act shortly after World War II in order to give the new health insurance companies an advantage when competing with larger established companies. This advantage is no longer needed, and McCarran-Ferguson should be abolished.
This would be accomplished by HR 372, the Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act of 2017, sponsored by Rep. Paul Gosar, a doctor of dental surgery and Republican of Arizona. This bill has passed the House of Representatives and needs to be passed by the Senate. Once this bill is enacted into law, health insurance companies would be put in a competitive forum and costs should start coming down.
JAY R. WELLS III
Bethel Park
The writer is a doctor of dental surgery.
