John Garamendi: “Mr. Speaker, I keep thinking about that movie ``Casablanca.'' The guy says, I am shocked to learn that the Republican…”

“Mr. Speaker, I keep thinking about that movie ``Casablanca.'' The guy says, I am shocked to learn that the Republican Party that has championed itself with the free market economy would oppose a measure that would, in fact, allow for competition. Now, a lot has been said on the floor today, but the fact of the matter is--and I spent 8 years of my life as the insurance commissioner in California, and I am here to tell you that the insurance companies, using the exemption from the antitrust laws, are able to conspire to fix prices on premiums and on payments to doctors. That has been proved in cases, national cases, brought by States and by private attorneys as well as by the attorney general of New York. Similarly, they are able to vertically integrate. In a case that took place in New York, where UnitedHealthcare owns a company called Ingenix, which actually sets the reimbursement rates, they are able to have a serious conflict of interest. The lower the normal reimbursement rates, the more the copay to consumers. So there are varieties of practices that take place in the insurance industry, practices which are anticompetitive and anticonsumer.”