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February 22, 2010 Paul Kincaid, 202-225-4289Cummings Votes To Strip Health Insurance Anti-Trust Exemption
Congressman supports treating health insurance organizations like most other American companies.
(Washington, DC) – Congressman Elijah E. Cummings (MD-07) today voted to pass H.R. 4626, the Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act. Once signed by the President, the legislation will take away the anti-trust exemption for health insurance companies, requiring them to compete fairly and adhere to the same anti-trust laws as other companies. The bill passed the House by a tally of 406-19.
It will also give the American people more choice in their health care by requiring health insurance companies to compete fairly and adhere to the same anti-trust laws as other companies.
“Insurance companies have been able to avoid legal accountability for price fixing, dividing up territories among themselves, and sabotaging their competitors in the marketplace in order to gain a monopoly for decades,” said Cummings. “Marylanders have paid higher premiums, had a lower quality of coverage and have been limited in their insurance choices.
“In Maryland, two companies have 63 percent of the insurance business. 96 percent of all health insurance markets are, like ours, “highly concentrated”. Consumers have little or no choice between insurers and it is too easy for insurance companies to collude on prices and practices. Now, anti-trust enforcement will finally be possible, to protect Americans from collusion in the industry and to create more choices.”
Stripping the anti-trust exemption from insurance companies was also part of H.R. 3962, the Affordable Health Care for America Act, which was passed by the House of Representatives last year.
Recently, Ehrlich has taken to being hostile towards the middle class. For example, on the November 28 show, Ehrlich came out in support of a massive new tax on the middle class, endorsing a health care plan offered by conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer. A key part of the plan is imposing a tax on employer-provided health insurance. Krauthammer estimates that this would be a $250 billion tax increase. While others have slammed this proposal for its impact on working Americans, Ehrlich posted the column on his website and told listeners, “Please read this Krauthammer piece, everybody, it’s just fantastic. He is the best writer on the right today.”
Since Ehrlich is the de facto head of the Maryland Republican Party, we wonder if the GOP’s announced gubernatorial candidates, Larry Hogan and Pat McDonough also support this tax increase. They should publicly state a position, now, as Ehrlich has boldly done, so the people of Maryland know where they stand.
Then, this week, Ehrlich came out against helping middle class consumers get access to credit, even when told by another WBAL host that the lack of credit was hurting the economy. Ehrlich also acted as a cheerleader for the recession, declaring that he was “not buying” good economic news:
Brian Kroneberger (host, Financial Hour, previewing his show, which follows the Ehrlichs): We’re going to walk through mixed signals in the economy. We had a better jobs report but the service sector, the manufacturing sector slipped a little bit–
Bob Ehrlich: I’m not buying it, Kroney.
Kendel Ehrlich: Any consumer reports yet on big Thanksgiving weekend?
Kroneberger: November retail sales a little bit lower, uh, than last year’s numbers –
Bob Ehrlich: People showing up but spending less, right?
Kroneberger: They’re showing up, spending less, frugal consumers, but you know –
Ehrlich: Sales, right?
Kroneberger: Credit. Credit cards have just basically taken — if you’re not a worthy consumer in their eyes by the numbers, right? You make ‘em bring down your interest rates and give you plenty of time to pay your bill, well they’ve fought back now and they’ve basically said, “You know what? The heck with it. Anybody that we think is not gonna pay us back, just purely by numbers, we’re gonna just take away their credit line.” And so you’ve got people out there, especially low and moderate income, people who have jobs, they don’t have credit anymore, so it’s going to be very difficult. So everybody down in Washington — Governor, you know this better than everybody — you know, “Go get the mean banks,” right –
Bob Ehrlich: Congress always overreacts. They always overreact. Always.
Kroneberger: But they’re coming back and saying, “You don’t have the credit line.” So that is certainly a negative economic sign.
So, Larry and Pat — who’s side are you on? Do you agree with Bob?
