Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) urges fellow Senate colleagues and members of the Judiciary Committee to pass the bill that would repeal insurance anti-trust laws enacted in 1945. (0:26)
Travis Martinez – University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service
The Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings on repealing the anti-trust exemption provision set by the McCarran-Ferguson Anti-Trust Act in 1945. The committee heard testimony on Wednesday from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and the Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Christine Varney.
Senator Reid argued that the provision be passed in the Senate’s health care reform bill, and urged Congress to act swiftly on the matter.
“I urge all my colleagues on this committee and all throughout the senate to get this bill out of committee as quickly as possible. The bill that came out of the Finance Committee…chips away at the monopoly they [health insurance companies] have,” said Reid.
“They are so anti-competitive. Why? Because they make more money than any other business in America today,” he added.
Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), a member of the Finance Committee, had harsh words for past anti-trust legislation. He vowed to bring an amendment to the floor that will repeal the anti-trust exemption when the Senate bill reaches the floor.
“The health insurance’s antitrust exemption is 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. It is time to end this special status and bring true competition to the health insurance industry,” Schumer said.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) sounded optimistic that the bill will have support from both sides of the aisle.
“This is a bipartisan, no this is a non-partisan thing, everyone should be subjected to the laws. If you obey the law and follow the law… you’ve got nothing to fear,” said Leahy.
