Under Obamacare, are insurance companies still exempt from federal antitrust laws? – YES
General Reference (not clearly pro or con)
[Editor's Note: The antitrust exemption for insurance companies existed prior to the passage of Obamacare. Although a House bill did contain language removing the exemption, the Senate version of the bill that was signed by President Obama to become law on Mar. 21, 2010 did not contain the language removing the exemption and it thus remained in effect.]
Under Obamacare, are insurance companies still exempt from federal antitrust laws? – YES
PRO (yes)
CON (no)
Michelle Andrews, New York Times freelance writer, stated in her Apr. 23, 2010 article "Are Insurance Companies Still Exempt From Antitrust Laws?," available at prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com:
"The new health reform law did not include language that ended the insurance industry's exemption from antitrust law. It was included in the House health bill but did not appear in the final Senate bill that became law."
Robert Reich, JD, Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and former Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton, wrote in his May 24, 2010 blog "Obama’s Regulatory Brain," available at www.robertreich.org:
"The final health care act doesn't even remove the exemption of private insurers from the nation's antitrust laws."
[Editor’s Note: Based upon a neutral reading of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and bi-partisan third party analysis, this question seems to have a clear and obvious Pro (yes) answer, and ProCon.org has therefore presented the responses in a single column with no opposing perspective.]
