Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. WATERS. Madam Speaker, the consumers of this country are finally getting the attention they deserve. For far too long, consumers have been ripped off by collusion and concentration of the health insurance industry. For far too long, public policymakers have turned a blind eye to the special antitrust exemption that health insurers have enjoyed, to the detriment of the American people.

We must pass this legislation, the Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act. This bill finally, after 65 years, amends the McCarran-Ferguson Act. Health insurers will be investigated and held accountable for price fixes, dividing up territories among themselves, sabotaging their competitors in order to gain monopoly power, and all anticompetitive practices. The Justice Department will have a mandate to prosecute this criminal activity.

And finally, the health insurance industry will have to compete. No more legally protected collusion. Let the marketplace work. No more protection for health insurance companies from the very people who have been elected to protect the best interests of the people. That's us.

The health insurance industry has gouged us long enough. They have increased premiums, higher copayments, higher deductibles. The health insurance industry, to add insult to injury, have thumbed their noses at both the consumers and legislators and left too many families at risk. In the middle of our debate about health insurance reform, health insurers are raising the premiums. They're denying lifesaving procedures. They're dropping too many of the insured who have been paying premiums for years if they deem the cost of their health care too costly. The CEOs of some of the biggest insurance companies are paying themselves unreasonably high salaries. Most of them are earning $10 million or more per year.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is time to put an end to the practices of the health insurance companies. That time is now. Let us stand up for the consumers. Let us do what the consumers elected us to do--come here and give some protection from these kinds of practices. Sixty-five years is too much, too long. The time is now. Let's get the job done. Let's pass this legislation.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source