Political Quotes

“today's final passage of this Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act marks the culmination of a decades- long struggle to make health insurance affordable to hard working Americans. This has been an arduous process, but it has proven that change truly is possible. America again has risen to meet one of its foremost challenges. Still, there is more work to be done to introduce competition into the health insurance industry. Today, health insurers do not play by the same rules of competition as do other industries. Benefiting from a 60-year-old special interest exemption, the business of insurance is not subject to the Nation's antitrust laws. These laws promote competition, which ensures that consumers will pay lower prices and receive more choices. We can surely agree that health insurers should not be allowed to collude to set prices and allocate markets. Last fall, I introduced legislation to repeal the health insurers' antitrust exemption. I held a hearing to examine the merits of this repeal, and worked to build bipartisan support. A few weeks ago, repeal of the antitrust exemption for health insurers became the first stand- alone part of the health reform package to pass the House, in a strong bipartisan vote of 406-19. Today I want to renew my call for the Senate to take up and pass this legislation to repeal the antitrust exemption for health insurance companies.”