Where Dementia Meets Antitrust

May 20, 2009 12:39 PM by S.M. Oliva (Archive)

From the "antitrust makes everything better" department:

Activists backing President Obama's health care overhaul are asking the Justice Department to open a wide-ranging investigation of what they say is monopoly-like power in the hands of major insurers.

The move by Health Care for America Now has consequences for the debate on Capitol Hill, since health insurers have been working closely with lawmakers to find a compromise that would expand coverage and curb costs.

The request sends a message to Democrats that many of their constituents don't trust the industry. Indeed, the activist group is one of the strongest supporters of setting up a government health plan to compete with private insurers.

"A lack of antitrust enforcement has enabled insurers to acquire dominant positions in almost every metropolitan market," said the letter to the Justice Department, signed by Richard Kirsch, the group's director. "The failure to attack anticompetitive practices has enhanced the dominant positions of these insurers. This must be reversed."

The letter, dated Tuesday, asks the Justice Department to crack down on industry practices that allegedly infringe on the doctor-patient relationship, and to re-examine whether dozens of insurance company mergers in recent years have undermined competition.

There's a certain irony here. For the past decade, insurance companies have used federal antitrust regulators to attack physician groups and hospitals. David Balto, who is Health Care for America Now's antitrust point man, in fact was one of the early leaders of the pro-insurance company, anti-provider policy when he was at the Federal Trade Commission. Somehow his views have evolved.

With that caveat, however, only a complete idiot can't see through this propaganda. HCFAN doesn't want a more competitive health care market; it wants a government monopoly. Here's a list of some of the group's objectives:

* A truly inclusive and accessible health care system in which no one is left out.

* Health care coverage with out-of-pocket costs including premiums, co-pays, and deductibles that are based on a family's ability to pay for health care and without limits on payments for covered services.

* Equity in health care access, treatment, research and resources to people and communities of color, resulting in the elimination of racial disparities in health outcomes and real improvement in health and life expectancy for all.

* Health coverage through the largest possible pools in order to achieve affordable, quality coverage for the entire population and to share risk fairly.

* A watchdog role on all plans, to assure that risk is fairly spread among all health care payers and that insurers do not turn people away, raise rates, or drop coverage based on a person's health history or wrongly delay or deny care.

* A choice of doctors, health providers, and private and public health insurance plans, without gaps in coverage or access and a delivery system that meets the needs of at-risk populations.

* Affordable and predictable health costs to businesses and employers. To the extent that employers contribute to the cost of health coverage, those payments should be related to employee wages rather than on a per-employee basis.

* Effective cost controls that promote quality, lower administrative costs, and long term financial sustainability, including: standard claims forms, secure electronic medical records, using the public's purchasing power to instill greater reliance on evidence-based protocols and lower drug and device prices, better management and treatment of chronic diseases, and a public role in deciding where money is invested in health care.

I suppose these goals are all achievable simultaneously -- assuming every resident of the United States has identical health care needs and earns precisely the same income. If we have to account for any differences between individuals, well, things are gonna get a little hairy.

Seriously, it's astounding that anyone could put forth an "agenda" like this with a straight face. This goes beyond socialism. This is full-blown dementia in public-policy form.