Insurers, however, enjoy wide exemptions from antitrust laws under the McCarran-Ferguson Act, passed in 1945. Sixty-five years later, the AMA’s analysis showed one insurer controlled at least half of the market in 48 percent of metropolitan statistical areas and the vast majority of these areas were dominated by two insurers at most.
“The market power of health insurers places physicians and patients at a significant disadvantage,” said AMA President Cecil B. Wilson, MD. “When insurers dominate a market, people pay higher health insurance premiums than they should, and physicians are pressured to accept unfair contract terms and corporate policies, which undermines the physician role as patient advocate.”
Read the AMA release on health insurer consolidation.
Read more coverage on insurers’ market power:
– Major Payors Expected to Buy More Small Healthcare Plans
– Judge to Decide Whether to Consolidate Class-Action Suits Against BCBS of Michigan
– With Threats to Payors’ Market Power, Trade Group Hires High-Ranking Antitrust Regulator
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