Response to your first two points
1 - Whether or not its a good program (again I'm not really a fan), it isn't corporate welfare, its providing a service to people at subsidized rates. Yes the companies receive subsidies, but that's to make the insurance packages cheaper.
2 - You really should check out the link I posted before. ( theincidentaleconomist.com )
Nothing should be exempted from Anti-Trust law. Monopolies and Oligopolies KILL free market Capitalism.
If it was a general or wide exception to anti-trust law might agree
A free market case can be made against anti-trust law in general, but its controversial, even among those that don't truest government intervention, so I'll assume its faulty for the sake of argument, so as not to drag the conversation in another direction.
This specific anti-trust exemption was apparently put in place to allow sharing of rate-making data, which might even result in increasing competition since otherwise smaller insurers wouldn't have enough information to adequately set rates and the market would trend towards larger companies (and thus more concentration) to a greater extent than it has.
To the extent that the law, or interpretations of it go beyond that, and it has become a problem (I don't see specific evidence that it has, but I suppose even the potential of it could be addressed), it could perhaps be rewritten to explictly make the exemption a narrower one.
What the law does is essentially make regulating the insurance companies more of a state issue. It keeps most federal law and regulation, from invalidating state control.
If the law was simply repealed, not only could sharing data cause the companies to run afoul of anti-trust law, you would also have a lot of other federal regulation applied all of the sudden.
Below is the actual text of the act. I've bolded some points to shoe that it doesn't really grant a blanket exemption to the antitrust law.
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79TH UNITED STATES CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
An Act
To express the intent of the Congress with reference to the regulation of the business of insurance.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
That the Congress hereby declares that the continued regulation and taxation by the several States of the business of insurance is in the public interest, and that silence on the part of the Congress shall not be construed to impose any barrier to the regulation or taxation of such business by the several States.
Sec. 2.
(a) The business of insurance, and every person engaged therein, shall be subject to the laws of the several States which relate to the regulation or taxation of such business.
(b) No Act of Congress shall be construed to invalidate, impair, or supersede any law enacted by any State for the purpose of regulating the business of insurance, or which imposes a fee or tax upon such business, unless such Act specifically relates to the business of insurance:
Provided, That after January 1, 1948, the Act of July 2, 1890, as amended, known as the Sherman Act, and the Act of October 15, 1914, as amended, known as the Clayton Act, and the Act of September 26, 1914, known as the Federal Trade Commission Act, as amended, shall be applicable to the business of insurance to the extent that such business is not regulated by State law.
Sec. 3.
(a) Until January 1, 1948, the Act of July 2, 1890, as amended, known as the Sherman Act, and the Act of October 15, 1914, as amended, known as the Clayton Act, and the Act of September 26, 1914, known as the Federal Trade Commission Act, as amended, and the Act of June 19, 1936, known as the Robinson-Patman Anti-discrimination Act, shall not apply to the business of insurance or to acts in the conduct thereof.
(b) Nothing contained in this Act shall render the said Sherman Act inapplicable to any agreement to boycott, coerce, or intimidate, or act of boycott, coercion, or intimidation.
Sec. 4.
Nothing contained in this Act shall be construed to affect in any manner the application to the business of insurance of the Act of July 5, 1935, as amended, known as the National Labor Relations Act, or the Act of June 25, 1938, as amended, known as the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, or the Act of June 5, 1920, known as the Merchant Marine Act, 1920.
Sec. 5.
As used in this Act, the term ‘‘State’’ includes the several States, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia.
Sec. 6.
If any provision of this Act, or the application of such provision to any person or circumstances, shall be held invalid, the remainder of the Act, and the application of such provision to persons or circumstances other than those as to which it is held invalid, shall not be affected.
en.wikisource.org |
