FACT CHECK: The Truth About McCarran-Ferguson
Posted by The Campaign on October 29, 2009 at 10:00 AM
Recently, the McCarran-Ferguson Act has become the focus of the reform debate. However, there are some misconceptions about the effect repealing the McCarran-Ferguson Act would have on costs and competition. Below are some key facts about this:
The Congressional Budget Office issued a report earlier this week which stated "would have no significant effect on the premiums that private insurers would charge for health insurance." For the full report click here.
Politico reports "CBO: Repealing insurance anti-trust exemption won't affect premiums" For the full article click here.
Bloomberg news reported on this issue late last week. Here are some key highlights from the article:
- " A proposal by the U.S. Congress to limit health insurers’ 64-year-old antitrust exemption won’t increase competition..."
- Robert Laszewski, an Alexandria, Virginia-based consultant to the industry said "Either the people who are proposing this are really naïve about how insurance is regulated, or they are just playing political games with the voters."
- "Repealing the exemption is 'not the silver bullet that I think some proponents are claiming,' said Greaney, who headed the Justice Department’s health-care antitrust unit in the 1980s. 'It certainly is not going to make a big difference in terms of the competitiveness of the markets.'"
- "'I think it’s going to fizzle,' [Laszewski] said of the antitrust repeal. 'They had themselves a couple of good days rattling sabers, but I think now their aides are going to be in their ears, whispering, "Hey, this doesn’t mean a whole lot."'"
