Title: Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act of 2017
Policy area: Health

Summary:
Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act of 2017
This bill amends the McCarran-Ferguson Act to declare that nothing in that Act modifies, impairs, or supersedes the operation of antitrust laws with respect to the business of health insurance, including the business of dental insurance.
Prohibitions against unfair methods of competition apply to the business of health insurance without regard to whether the business is for profit.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 372 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 372

    To restore the application of the Federal antitrust laws to the 
   business of health insurance to protect competition and consumers.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 9, 2017

     Mr. Gosar (for himself, Mr. Brat, Mr. Brooks of Alabama, Mr. 
 DesJarlais, Mr. Duncan of Tennessee, Mr. Gohmert, Mr. Jones, Mr. King 
 of Iowa, Mr. Roe of Tennessee, Mr. Austin Scott of Georgia, Mr. Yoho, 
     Mr. Ferguson, Mr. Wittman, Mr. Babin, and Mr. Smith of Texas) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                             the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To restore the application of the Federal antitrust laws to the 
   business of health insurance to protect competition and consumers.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Competitive Health Insurance Reform 
Act of 2017''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) Open, free, and fair competition has made the United 
        States the strongest economy in the world.
            (2) As a general proposition, Government should ensure that 
        no industry obtains an unfair competitive advantage and that 
        the playing field is equal. The Congress should not play 
        favorites with certain industries or special interest groups by 
        exempting one group from the general application of the law.
            (3) There is no factual basis supporting any further 
        exemption of the health insurance industry from Federal 
        antitrust and unfair competition laws.
            (4) 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.

SEC. 3. PURPOSE.

    It is the purpose of this Act to ensure that health insurance 
issuers are subject to the same antitrust and unfair trade practices 
laws that all businesses have had to comply with and to more 
effectively ensure that these issuers would be subject to Federal laws 
against price fixing, bid rigging, or market allocations to the 
detriment of competition and consumers. This Act remedies a special 
exemption provided by Congress in 1945 to respond to the United States 
Supreme Court decision entitled United States v. South-Eastern 
Underwriters Association, wherein the Court correctly held that the 
Federal Government could regulate insurance companies under the 
authority of the commerce clause in the Constitution. This Act would 
also retain enforcement of these laws with State and Federal law 
enforcement agencies and allow private causes of action by aggrieved 
consumers harmed by unfair trade practices.

SEC. 4. RESTORING THE APPLICATION OF ANTITRUST LAWS TO HEALTH SECTOR 
              INSURERS.

    (a) Amendment to McCarran-Ferguson Act.--Section 3 of the Act of 
March 9, 1945 (15 U.S.C. 1013), commonly known as the McCarran-Ferguson 
Act, is amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(c)(1) Nothing contained in this Act shall modify, impair, or 
supersede the operation of any of the antitrust laws with respect to 
the business of health insurance (including the business of dental 
insurance). For purposes of the preceding sentence, the term `antitrust 
laws' has the meaning given it in subsection (a) of the first section 
of the Clayton Act, except that such term includes section 5 of the 
Federal Trade Commission Act to the extent that such section 5 applies 
to unfair methods of competition.
    ``(2) For purposes of paragraph (1), the term `business of health 
insurance (including the business of dental insurance)' does not 
include--
            ``(A) the business of life insurance (including annuities); 
        or
            ``(B) the business of property or casualty insurance, 
        including but not limited to, any insurance or benefits defined 
        as `excepted benefits' under paragraph (1), subparagraph (B) or 
        (C) of paragraph (2), or paragraph (3) of section 9832(c) of 
        the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (26 U.S.C. 9832(c)) whether 
        offered separately or in combination with insurance or benefits 
        described in paragraph (2)(A) of such section.''.
    (b) Related Provision.--For purposes of section 5 of the Federal 
Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 45) to the extent such section applies 
to unfair methods of competition, section 3(c) of the McCarran-Ferguson 
Act shall apply with respect to the business of health insurance 
without regard to whether such business is carried on for profit, 
notwithstanding the definition of ``Corporation'' contained in section 
4 of the Federal Trade Commission Act.
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