Key committees have not marked up and sent to the floor three separate bills that would:
- Require price disclosure by hospitals, physicians, drugmakers and pharmacies.
- Direct HHS to review rate increases in states where insurance commissioners don’t have that authority.
- Remove health insurers’ exemption from the federal antitrust law.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she wanted to focus on “jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs.”
Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) acknowledged House members “would be wary of major health legislation after we’ve spent so much time [on the reform law]. We do have other priorities.”
Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) suggested the antitrust measure wasn’t necessary because “every state has an antitrust law. Why do you need a federal antitrust law?”
Read the Hill‘s report on health reform.
