Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I appreciate Senator Daines joining me to clarify the intent of the Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act of 2019. This legislation, which Senator Daines has introduced with Senator Leahy, would modify the McCarran-Ferguson Act by eliminating the health insurance industry's exemption from Federal antitrust laws. That sounds like a good idea, but it has implications for longstanding State regulation of the insurance industry.

States have had the primary responsibility for the regulation of health insurance since the 1940s. Given my past experience as commissioner of Maine's Department of Professional and Financial Regulation, I know firsthand that State insurance regulators do a good job of responding to the needs and concerns of their insurance consumers. To protect consumers, State insurance regulators hold probing hearings on rate requests which often lead to lower rates being approved. Most State insurance regulators have consumer protection advocates who resolve disputes between insurers and individual consumers. State regulators do not tolerate unfair or anticompetitive practices. As the National Association of Insurance Commissioners wrote to the leaders of the Senate and the Senate Judiciary Committee, ``The potential for bid rigging, price-fixing and market allocation is of great concern to state insurance regulators and we share your view that such practices would be harmful to consumers and should not be tolerated. However, we want to assure you that these activities are not permitted under state law. Indeed, the state insurance regulators in all states actively enforce their antitrust rules and review rates to ensure they are actuarially justified, sufficient for solvency and nondiscriminatory.''

Based on this experience, I have consistently raised concerns about legislation that could interfere with the current State-level regulation of insurance and could ultimately harm Maine consumers and smaller insurers. These concerns extend to the Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act.

While the bill does not directly modify the portion of McCarran- Ferguson that affirms State regulatory authority, it, however, does add a layer of Federal review, and we need to ensure that in doing so we do not create increased confusion, cost, and possible conflicts between State and Federal efforts.

This is why it is very important to make clear Congress's intent that along with the changes specified in the bill, it is Congress's expectation that the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission must notify State bureaus of insurance and attorneys general of any complaints or investigations they have received or are performing that involve entities in their state. I appreciate Senator Daines' willingness to join me today to ensure this intent is clearly stated in the Congressional Record.

Given the agreement to provide formal clarification of the expectation that DOJ and FTC shall provide notification to States regarding complaints or investigations they have received or are performing, I will withdraw my objection to passage of this legislation.

Thank you.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source