Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) filed an amendment to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590) (the “PPACA”) on December 1, 2009, that would repeal the exemption from federal antitrust laws for the health insurance and medical malpractice insurance industries.  The proposed amendment consists of language taken from the Health Insurance Industry Antitrust Enforcement Act (S. 1681), discussed here, which was proposed by Senator Leahy last September to eliminate the federal antitrust exemption for health insurance and medical malpractice insurance companies.  Similar language has already been included in the House’s version of the PPACA.

According to Senator Leahy’s press release, the proposed amendment would prohibit price fixing, bid rigging, and market allocations.  This is conduct that Senator Leahy states “harms consumers, raises health care costs, and for which there is no justification.”  In Senator Leahy’s words, “[s]ubjecting health and medical malpractice insurance providers to the antitrust laws will enable customers to feel confident that the price they are being quoted is the product of a fair marketplace.”