ADA encourages Congress to use oversight tools to pursue updates from administration

The ADA thanked the House Committee on Ways and Means for holding a hearing titled “Why Health Care is Unaffordable: Anticompetitive and Consolidated Markets” and offered its support to Congress and the Administration in pursuing anticompetitive behavior in dental insurance markets.

In a May 19 letter to Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-FL, chair and Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-TX, ranking member of the Health Subcommittee of the House Committee on Ways and Means, ADA President George R. Shepley, D.D.S. and Executive Director Raymond A. Cohlmia, D.D.S., said that the enactment of the Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act, signed into law in January 2021, which removed the antitrust exemption for health care insurance “makes the conduct of health insurers subject to more of the nation’s antitrust laws … and helps remove additional obstacles to investigation and enforcement.”

“Since health insurers will now be subject to the same enforcement as other businesses, the ADA believes that both the Federal Trade Commission FTC and the Department of Justice DOJ will be more likely to investigate alleged anticompetitive practices and activities of health care insurers. The DOJ’s Antitrust Division welcomed this new law with its support by saying, removing this exemption ‘will strengthen the Antitrust Division’s ability to investigate and prosecute anticompetitive behavior.’

“The enactment of this law amending the McCarran-Ferguson Act remains a major achievement of Congress in pursing anticompetitive behavior within health care. We further encourage the Ways and Means Committee to pursue this area by using its available oversight tools and encouraging DOJ to update Congress on its efforts to date in this area.”

Follow all of the ADA’s advocacy efforts at ADA.org/advocacy.