Bill Pascrell: “Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for your leadership and persistence on this critical matter.…”

“Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for your leadership and persistence on this critical matter. "Mischaracterization," I think, is the word of the day. When you look back at the beginning of the discussions of health care, there's been more mischaracterizations of what was in the bill. But this bill that is before us, H.R. 4626, is only two pages--not 2,000, not 2 million--two pages, very clear and to the point. So what this bill seems to do--if I had my way, I would have brought this bill up when we discussed the beginning, back last summer. But I'm one person. To call them out, to call out the other side, and to call out the other end of the building. I mean, we've passed 290 pieces of legislation that they haven't even looked at yet. And this is critical. This is to end the anticompetitive, antitrust exemption. Now we have a new administration. Talk is cheap about how we're going to bolster antitrust laws. I haven't seen anything yet so far, but I'm hopeful. In all the industries in America, there are only two that have antitrust exemptions--baseball, America's pastime; and the health insurance industry, America's nightmare--and I think it's long past time we get rid of their exemption. Now, I've heard so many terms since the parties last summer, through the fall, through the winter, about uncompetitiveness. We want open markets. Now we look at the system, and it's price fixing and collusion over and over and over again.”