Thread: Senate healthcare bill stripped and dumbed down

The Senate Healthcare Reform Bill has stripped proposals to remove the anti-trust exemption for healthcare insurance companies.



This exemption made sense when healthcare insurance was run by tax exempt, non-profit organizations, but doesn't make sense now.



The Senate is caving to the insurance industry and the American people shouldn't allow it. Any Senator voting in the interest of the healthcare insurers should be removed from office.



Here is the background: the McCarran-Ferguson Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarra...93Ferguson_Act

The McCarran–Ferguson Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1011-1015, is a United States federal law that exempts insurance companies from the federal anti-trust legislation that applies to most businesses and allows state law to regulate the business of insurance without federal government interference. The McCarran–Ferguson Act was passed by Congress in 1945 after the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. South-Eastern Underwriters Association that the federal government could regulate insurance companies under the authority of the Commerce Clause in the U.S. Constitution.

Here is an example: Blue Cross and Blue Shield (now WellPoint): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Cross_Blue_Shield

Prior to the Tax Reform Act of 1986, organizations administering Blue Cross Blue Shield were tax exempt under 501(c)(4) as social welfare plans. However, the Tax Reform Act of 1986 revoked that exemption, because the plans sold commercial-type insurance. They became 501(m) organizations, subject to federal taxation but entitled to "special tax benefits" under IRC 833. In 1994, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association changed to allow its licensees to be for-profit corporations. Some plans are still considered not-for-profit at the state level.