The government has allowed quite a few antitrust exemptions for health care firms since the middle of the 1940’s. That may change next week.

While the large version of the medical insurance bill is stalled in Congress, the House is ready to pass a less sweeping version of the bill. They will vote to eliminate the anti-trust exemption from health care insurance providers.

The health care plan currently awaiting revision is 2000 pages and close to 400,000 words. This bill is only one page long, both sides.

They anticipate easy passage.

“This should be an easy one,” said freshman Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Va., who co-sponsors the legislation with fellow frosh Rep. Betsy Markey, D-Colo.

However, no Republican has signed off on it yet.

In fact, the House Minority Leader, John Boehner, R-Ohio, describes the antitrust exemption as very narrow and defended the exemption.

“It allows (insurers) to share loss data so they can accurately predict their rates,” Boehner said. “So I’m having concerns that without this ability, we’re going to see rates go up because some of these insurers are not going to have enough data to predict what their losses are going to be.”

Smaller Packages

Whatever happens, In the light of the election of Republican Senator Scott Brown, which eliminated the filibuster proof majority the Democrats had in the house, this may signal a strategy shift for the Democrats.

The antitrust exemption bill could be the first of many smaller packages the Democrats roll out. They may want to make sure the public knows that while the original bill remains in limbo, the health care issue as a whole is still very much alive for the Democrats.

Photo via stephmcg