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| February 24, 2010 | |
Langevin Supports Health Insurance Fair Competition Act |
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| Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 4626, the Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act, which will finally require the health insurance industry to comply with the same federal antitrust laws as virtually every other industry in the United States. The recent economic recession dealt a crushing blow to Rhode Islanders. Many are out of work and simply don’t have insurance coverage. The ones who do are struggling to afford the perpetual rate increases year after year. Although Rhode Island is a state with strong health insurance consumer protections, this fact provides little comfort to the thousands of people who will lose their coverage because it’s simply too expensive. We must do everything in our power to hold down the rising costs of insurance premiums, which includes ensuring healthy market competition. After all, competition is the driving force of economic prosperity. But for over 65 years, the health insurance industry has played by a different set of rules, allowing them to engage in anticompetitive practices that drive up the cost of premiums. This bill will outlaw existing health insurance practices like price fixing, bid rigging, and market allocation that drive up costs for all Americans. It will protect honest competition from collusion and other destructive practices within the health insurance industry so we can achieve greater affordability, improved quality, increased innovation, and more consumer choice – just as the antitrust laws have done throughout the rest of the economy for over a century. Americans can no longer afford to give insurance companies special treatment. I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of the Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act. |
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