Greg Ganske: “well, here we are again with a difficult rule. We will see whether we can work this out. I think I need to spend a…”

“well, here we are again with a difficult rule. We will see whether we can work this out. I think I need to spend a couple of minutes talking about why this bill should pass. Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Iowa controls the health care of 98 percent of the hospitals and 90 percent of the doctors. One insurance company controls the access and health costs of 60 percent of insured Oregonians. Market competition in Texas is all but gone. Twenty-four competing companies have compressed into four mega-managed care companies. Sixty percent of the Pittsburgh market is controlled by one plan. More than 50 percent of the Philadelphia market is controlled by one plan. Each plan has maintained its dominance by virtue of an agreement not to compete in each other's territory. One insurance company dictates health care in over half of Washington State. Since I came to Congress and closed my practice in 1994, there have been 275 mergers and acquisitions of health plans. There are now seven managed health care plans and Blues control the cost and access of the majority of people in this country. What does that mean?…”