Cass Ballenger said "I would like to say antitrust exemption will not improve health care quality at all. Proponents of this bill say that it will level the playing field between doctors and health plans. But what happens to the consumer when the providers get together and collectively negotiate with insurers? Although such behavior violates Federal and State law, it is not at all that unusual. Federal antitrust regulators have dealt with more than 50 such cases over the past number of years, and none of these cases, not one, involved collective efforts to improve the health care quality. Every case involved efforts by the providers to raise their fees to anticompetitive levels at the expense of the consumers, employers, and taxpayers who finance programs for seniors, the disabled and the poor." @ PoliticalQuotes.com

On the recordJune 29, 2000

I would like to say antitrust exemption will not improve health care quality at all. Proponents of this bill say that it will level the playing field between doctors and health plans. But what happens to the consumer when the providers get together and collectively negotiate with insurers? Although such behavior violates Federal and State law, it is not at all that unusual. Federal antitrust regulators have dealt with more than 50 such cases over the past number of years, and none of these cases, not one, involved collective efforts to improve the health care quality. Every case involved efforts by the providers to raise their fees to anticompetitive levels at the expense of the consumers, employers, and taxpayers who finance programs for seniors, the disabled and the poor.

Said by

Cass Ballenger

North Carolina

Source

govinfo.gov

Editor's note · Context

Discussing the implications of antitrust exemptions on health care quality.

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