[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1681 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1681

    To ensure that health insurance issuers and medical malpractice 
insurance issuers cannot engage in price fixing, bid rigging, or market 
       allocations to the detriment of competition and consumers.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           September 17, 2009

  Mr. Leahy (for himself, Mr. Feingold, Ms. Cantwell, Mr. Durbin, Mr. 
 Schumer, and Mrs. Feinstein) introduced the following bill; which was 
       read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To ensure that health insurance issuers and medical malpractice 
insurance issuers cannot engage in price fixing, bid rigging, or market 
       allocations to the detriment of competition and consumers.

    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 2009''.

SEC. 2. PURPOSE.

    It is the purpose of this Act to ensure that health insurance 
issuers and medical malpractice insurance issuers cannot engage in 
price fixing, bid rigging, or market allocations to the detriment of 
competition and consumers.

SEC. 3. PROHIBITION OF ANTI-COMPETITIVE 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. 4. APPLICATION TO ACTIVITIES OF STATE COMMISSIONS OF INSURANCE AND 
              OTHER STATE INSURANCE REGULATORY BODIES.

    Nothing in this Act shall apply to the information gathering and 
rate setting activities of any State commission of insurance, or any 
other State regulatory entity with authority to set insurance rates.
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