Lamar Smith: “I support this motion to recommit on H.R. 4626, the Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act. As I stated in my…”

“I support this motion to recommit on H.R. 4626, the Health Insurance Industry Fair Competition Act. As I stated in my earlier comments, this legislation does little, if anything. However, if you are going to do nothing, you might as well do it better. This motion corrects three drafting errors that create problems with the bill. First, it adds a definition for health insurers that was absent from the base bill. If we are going to eliminate McCarran-Ferguson for a limited subset of insurers, then we should clarify who those insurers are. Second, this motion to recommit includes the exchange of data provision that Mr. Lungren added at the Judiciary Committee markup of a similar bill. It is necessary to ensure that small and medium health insurers can in fact compete in the marketplace. Third, the motion to recommit includes language that protects the rate gathering and rate setting activities of State insurance commissions. The majority assumes this will be protected by the State action doctrine. But if Congress is going to repeal a 65-year-old law, shouldn't we make clear that we do not want this to undermine State insurance commissions? Finally, the motion to recommit includes a GAO study on the impact of this legislation on competition in the health insurance market.”