Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act

Bill: 113-hr-743
Sponsor: full_name: Rep. DeFazio, Peter A. [D-OR-4]
Introduced: 2013-02-15
Policy area: Health
Subjects: Competition and antitrust

Health care costs and insurance

Insurance industry and regulation
Latest action: action_date: 2013-04-08
text: Referred to the Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial And Antitrust Law.

Summaries:
action_date: 2013-02-15
action_desc: Introduced in House
text: <p>Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act - Amends the McCarran-Ferguson Act to provide that nothing in that Act shall modify, impair, or supersede the operation of any of the antitrust laws with respect to the business of health insurance.</p> <p>Applies prohibitions against using unfair methods of competition to the business of health insurance without regard to whether such business is carried on for profit.</p>

tv_txt: I 113th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 743 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES February 15, 2013 Mr. DeFazio (for himself and Ms. Slaughter ) 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.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act . 2. 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) 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. 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. . (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.