Legislative Updates

President Obama met with House and Senate leaders from both parties on Tuesday to discuss health care reform and rising health care costs. President Obama has called for a bipartisan health care summit to be held Feb. 25 to discuss health care reform overhaul efforts.

Due to extreme local weather conditions, the House suspended votes for the week and recessed early for President's Day. A standalone House bill to repeal the antitrust exemption for health insurers that was scheduled for floor action this week has been postponed and will likely be introduced and brought to the floor the week of Feb. 22 when the House and Senate return from recess. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) indicated that the bill will be allowed to bypass the committee process and be brought to the House floor for a full vote. It is uncertain whether the bill will apply to medical professional liability insurers.

In the News

Academy Senior Health Fellow Cori Uccello discussed how to strengthen an individual health insurance coverage mandate in a Kiplinger's Personal Finance (March 1) article exploring the future of health care reform. She said that an individual health insurance coverage mandate could be strengthened by providing non-financial incentives to purchase coverage, such as offering health insurance only during an annual open-enrollment period so that people cannot wait until they are sick to purchase insurance.

Academy Medical Professional Liability Subcommittee Chairperson Kevin Bingham discussed the potential consequences of legislation to repeal an antitrust exemption for medical professional liability insurers on National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" (Feb. 8). Bingham said the repeal could preclude data collection and aggregation across companies, which could reduce competition and potentially increase premiums. The Academy's Jan. 21 letter to congressional leaders regarding the exemption repeal was also cited in an Insurance Networking News article on Feb. 5 about the upcoming introduction of related legislation.

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