[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 99 Introduced in House (IH)]
114th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 99
To prohibit anticompetitive activities and to provide that health
insurance issuers and medical malpractice insurance issuers are subject
to the antitrust laws of the United States, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
January 6, 2015
Mr. Conyers introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To prohibit anticompetitive activities and to provide that health
insurance issuers and medical malpractice insurance issuers are subject
to the antitrust laws of the United States, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Health Insurance Industry Antitrust
Enforcement Act of 2015''.
SEC. 2. PROHIBITION OF ANTICOMPETITIVE ACTIVITIES.
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, nothing in the Act of
March 9, 1945 (15 U.S.C. 1011 et seq., commonly known as the
``McCarran-Ferguson Act''), shall be construed to permit health
insurance issuers (as defined in section 2791 of the Public Health
Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300gg-91)) or issuers of medical malpractice
insurance to engage in any form of price fixing, bid rigging, or market
allocations in connection with the conduct of the business of providing
health insurance coverage (as defined in such section) or coverage for
medical malpractice claims or actions.
SEC. 3. RESTORING THE APPLICATION OF ANTITRUST LAWS TO HEALTH SECTOR
INSURERS.
(a) Amendment to McCarran-Ferguson Act.--Section 3 of the Act of
March 9, 1945 (15 U.S.C. 1013), commonly known as the McCarran-Ferguson
Act, is amended by adding at the end the following:
``(c) Nothing contained in this Act shall modify, impair, or
supersede the operation of any of the antitrust laws with respect to
the business of health insurance. For purposes of the preceding
sentence, the term `antitrust laws' has the meaning given it in
subsection (a) of the first section of the Clayton Act, except that
such term includes section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act to the
extent that such section 5 applies to unfair methods of competition.''.
(b) Related Provision.--For purposes of section 5 of the Federal
Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. 45) to the extent such section applies
to unfair methods of competition, section 3(c) of the McCarran-Ferguson
Act shall apply with respect to the business of health insurance
without regard to whether such business is carried on for profit,
notwithstanding the definition of ``Corporation'' contained in section
4 of the Federal Trade Commission Act.
<all>