Health Insurance Industry Antitrust Enforcement Act of 2017

Bill: 115-hr-143
Sponsor: full_name: Rep. Conyers, John, Jr. [D-MI-13]
Introduced: 2017-01-03
Policy area: Health
Subjects: Competition and antitrust

Health care costs and insurance

Insurance industry and regulation
Latest action: action_date: 2017-01-23
text: Referred to the Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial And Antitrust Law.

Summaries:
action_date: 2017-01-03
action_desc: Introduced in House
text: <p><b>Health Insurance Industry Antitrust Enforcement Act of 2017</b></p> <p>This bill prohibits the McCarran-Ferguson Act from being construed to permit health insurance or medical malpractice insurance issuers to engage in price fixing, bid rigging, or market allocations in connection with providing health insurance or medical malpractice coverage.</p> <p>This bill amends the McCarran-Ferguson Act to provide that nothing in that Act modifies, impairs, or supersedes the operation of antitrust laws with respect to the business of health insurance. Prohibitions of unfair methods of competition apply to the business of health insurance without regard to whether the business is for profit.</p>

tv_txt: I 115th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 143 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES January 3, 2017 Mr. Conyers introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary A BILL To prohibit anticompetitive activities and to provide that health insurance issuers and medical malpractice insurance issuers are subject to the antitrust laws of the United States, and for other purposes.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Health Insurance Industry Antitrust Enforcement Act of 2017 . 2. Prohibition of anticompetitive activities Notwithstanding any other provision of law, nothing in the Act of March 9, 1945 ( 15 U.S.C. 1011 et seq. , commonly known as the McCarran-Ferguson Act ), shall be construed to permit health insurance issuers (as defined in section 2791 of the Public Health Service Act ( 42 U.S.C. 300gg–91 )) or issuers of medical malpractice insurance to engage in any form of price fixing, bid rigging, or market allocations in connection with the conduct of the business of providing health insurance coverage (as defined in such section) or coverage for medical malpractice claims or actions. 3. 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.