[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 19]
[House]
[Page 26541]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1415
                              HEALTH CARE

  (Mr. DeFAZIO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, it's hard to reform health care. You have 
got to take on some of those powerful special interests in America. 
Perhaps that's why it's been 139 days since the Republican leadership 
announced they would have an alternative, but they don't have one yet.
  Perhaps it's because at the heart of this is the insurance industry. 
Most people don't know, but the Republicans do know very well.
  The health insurance industry is exempt from antitrust law. They do 
not have to play by the same rules as any other American business. They 
can and do collude to jack up rates. They can and do collude to divide 
markets and exclude competition.
  They can do anything they want, and it's legal. They are outside the 
antitrust law of the United States of America. The Democratic bill will 
repeal this unfair antitrust exemption, bring real competition to this 
industry for the first time since the 1940s. The Republicans don't want 
to touch that with a 100-foot pole or maybe a $10,000 contribution.

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