Little-known, big issue

Why haven't we heard more about this?

The health insurance industry has been operating with a distinct advantage to the big companies that most of us didn't even know about: exemption from anti-trust laws that prevent a monopoly and squelch competition. It has occupied little of our current debate on reform.

But now the House Judiciary Committee has voted 20 to 9 to strip this exemption.

Although I didn't know much about this, my friend Richard wrote recently in a response to my blog that BlueCross/BlueShield dominates the health insurance market in North Carolina. I can't find his comment now, but as I remember it was something like 87%, and his rates had gone up some 300% along with increases in co-pay as well.

It seems to me that eliminating such monopolies would be on a par with the public plan in terms of competitive price lowering.

Ralph