“The SOAR Campaign applauds the US House for passing H.R. 1418, The Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act of 2020. For far too long, health insurance companies have enjoyed exemptions from the federal antitrust laws most other industries must abide by.
With the passage of the Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act, health insurers are now one step closer to adhering to federal antitrust laws, which were put in place to protect consumers and promote competition. We urge the Senate to follow the House’s lead and pass bill S.350 by Senators Daines and Leahy to prevent big health insurers from price fixing and collusion.
At a time when millions of Americans are suffering from the physical and financial strain of the coronavirus pandemic, health insurers are experiencing record profits. Despite these profits, and even in the midst of a global health crisis, insurers continue to engage in unfair practices that boost their bottom line and hurt patients. They continually increase premiums and then engage in practices such as denying claims after the fact based on “medical necessity” and keeping their networks narrow by refusing to negotiate in-network rates with providers, particularly in the air medical industry.
We echo the comments in the recent letter by Air Methods to Members of Congress, which expresses support for the work of the House and states:
“[T]he largest national health insurers, United Healthcare, Aetna, and Cigna, refuse to go in-network with most emergency air medical providers to cover this life-saving care, despite the fact that coming to an agreement would take the patient out of the middle and result in both patient and insurer paying less than what they are currently paying for these services.”
The SOAR Campaign is grateful for the leadership of Representatives Peter DeFazio and Paul Gosar on this bipartisan legislation and their efforts to push insurers to act fairly and transparently.”