Joanne Doroshow on the Insurance Antitrust Exemption

Joanne never disappoints.  

It's fascinating to watch the insurance industry try to justify 60 years of anti-competitive behavior. The medical malpractice insurers are doing their best, that's for sure. They want medical malpractice "removed from the bill," according to insurance lobbyist Larry Smarr, president of the Physician Insurers Association of America, who testified that "market conduct abuses" never happen in the medical liability industry, and that repealing the most anti-competitive law in the nation would, in his words, "undermine competition."

Whatever their tactic and latest form of utterly absurd double speak, it's crucial that when Congress does repeal the McCarran-Ferguson Act, the medical malpractice industry is not left out. The Consumer Federation of America predicts that repealing this law for medical malpractice insurers could result in a 20 percent insurance savings for doctors.

Source: Joanne Doroshow: Medical Malpractice Insurers: Time to End Their License to Gouge