liability insurers this week or next, according to the National Association of Professional Insurance Agents (PIA).
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A coalition of industry trade groups last week fervently expressed its opposition to the repeal of the McCarran-Ferguson Act’s exemption from federal antitrust laws.
The coalition includes American Insur-
ance Association, Council of Insurance
Agents and Brokers, the Financial
Services Roundtable, the Indepen-
dent Insurance Agents & Brokers of
America, the National Association of
Insurance and Financial Advisors, the
National Association of Mutual In-
surance Companies, PIA, Physician
Insurers Association of America, Prop-
erty Casualty Insurers Association of
America and Reinsurance Association
of America. Their letter asserted that
McCarran-Ferguson was enacted in
1945 to specifically give insurance reg-
ulatory authority to the states.
The United States House of Represen-
tatives is predicted to take up a bill to
eliminate the exemption for medical
“Every state has a comprehensive insur-
ance code that governs the insurance
industry, including subjecting the in-
dustry to antitrust enforcement,” said
the Coalition.
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“Medical liability insurers, like other property-casualty companies, are subject to this overarching enforcement structure,” the letter went on. “It is important to note that medical malpractice insurance is not a health insurance product. It is a property-casualty insurance liability product, underwritten by property/casualty companies for medical professionals and facilities. In fact, the only thing even health-related about medical malpractice insurance is simply its name and the fact that the medical profession and medical facilities purchase it. Its inclusion in legislation to repeal McCarran-Ferguson for health insurance is misplaced.”
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The Coalition noted, “Some members of Congress have a mistaken perception that the antitrust provisions of the McCarran-Ferguson Act protect anticompetitive activities by medical liability insurers. They do not.”
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The exemption does not allow insurers a “blanket exemption” from antitrust laws, according to the letter.
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“State laws already prohibit issuers of health insurance and medical malpractice insurance from engaging in practices such as price fixing, bid rigging, and market allocations,” the Coalition said, citing a Congressional Budget Office study.
The letter again emphasized the use of loss costs in the pricing of products, since insurers must set a charge for their customers’ coverage, before knowing the actual costs of the coverage.
“Therefore, insurers need a reliable way of projecting those loss costs in order to price their products in a sound
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