Democrats hit back at a health insurance industry trade group.

[Are_grits_groceries]

In a rare appearance as a witness at a Senate hearing, the majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, told the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that it should repeal a 1945 law that granted the insurance industry limited exemption to national antitrust laws by allowing states to regulate insurers.

The law, the McCarran-Ferguson Act, is often cited by Mr. Reid and other critics of the health insurance industry as a reason why coverage can be so expensive for many people. They say the law allows insurers to monopolize markets and fix prices in ways that are usually illegal.

http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/14/for-insurers-a-question-of-trust-and-antitrust/?hp

They should have passed this a long time ago. Now if the Dems will just push it through. Don't threaten to do something and then not do it!

[bluestateguy]

1. I'm plesantly surprised

I was fully expecting the Democrats to cower with fear after that AHIP "study", but alas they seem to have come out swinging.

[gratuitous]

2. AHIP appears to have miscalculated

Not their fault, really, because who would have expected the Democrats to be upset by industry blackmail? It's worked so well for so long for so many different business groups, AHIP had no way of knowing this would be the one instance where Democrats fought against their corporate overlords.

[redqueen]

3. Well whatever is going on, I'm sure it's got nothing to to with Obama.

He's just like Bush, after all. He's working against all of this behind the scenes, I'm sure of it.

:sarcasm:

[gratuitous]

4. Of course not

I mean, what has the guy accomplished? We don't have flying cars, do we? We were supposed to have flying cars nine years ago, and there's no flying cars. Complete and total failure, if you ask me. And why do we still have weather? It's supposed to be sunny and 75 all the time. Don't get me started on my favorite sports teams, which are all performing below my expectations.