While everyone knows at this point that the House on Thursday is expected to vote on the American Health Care Act to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, another less-publicized bill that would prohibit insurers from engaging in anti-competitive practices will also get a floor vote then.
The Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act would amend a section of the McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945, which exempted the insurance industry from the antitrust Sherman Act and the Clayton Acts.
The broad exemption was intended to assist newly established insurance companies set sustainable premiums by permitting data sharing between insurance companies, according to Rep. Paul Gosar, a Republican from Arizona who sponsored the bill.
[Also: Republicans coming up short on votes for GOP healthcare bill, reports say]
"However, after 70 years, it is apparent that this unbridled antitrust exemption has had an injurious impact on consumers in the form of artificially higher premiums, unfair insurance restrictions, and harmful policy exclusions," Gosar said on his website.
H.R. 372 would ensure that federal antitrust laws apply to health insurance, Gosar said. The bill would specifically prohibit insurers from engaging in price fixing, bid rigging, and market allocation in an aim to increase competition and lower premiums.
The bipartisan bill has 20 cosponsors and came out of the House Judiciary Committee.
"There is no factual basis supporting any further exemption of the health insurance industry from federal antitrust and unfair competition laws," the bill states. "Enforcement of these laws is most appropriately done through the U.S. Department of Justice, and in the case of aggrieved individuals through private actions as set forth in the existing statutes."
The bill follows a year of contentious litigation in which Aetna and Humana, and also Anthem and Cigna, attempted to merge. Both deals were blocked by the Department of Justice and in court. Anthem has appealed in a case to be heard on Friday.
Twitter: @SusanJMorse