FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:

Jim Edwards 202-452-8300, EXT. 415
Kerry Lynn Schmit 202-637-3089
John Murray 202-778-8496

(October 19, 1999) - The Antitrust Coalition for Consumer Choice in Health Care today released a letter from the American Antitrust Institute that criticizes the Quality Health Care Coalition Act, H.R. 1304. The letter says "jettisoning antitrust policy altogether, in this large and important area of the economy, is a meat-cleaver solution that would do far more harm than good."

"As this independent analysis by the AAI shows, consumers would bear the brunt of this bill's unfettered collusion and its effects," said Robert Leibenluft of the Antitrust Coalition, a group of employers, business groups, nonphysician providers, insurers and others dedicated to ensuring that consumers have broad health care options fostered by competition. Coalition members agree that competition and greater consumer choice help contain costs and improve quality. 

In its letter to congressional committee leaders, the AAI, an independent, consumer-oriented organization dedicated to competition through enforcement of antitrust laws, said H.R. 1304 would result in "substantially higher health care costs" for consumers. The letter also says many consumers would "suddenly be subject to cartel pricing, including those for whom any quality-related benefits of the bill would be small or nonexistent."

H.R. 1304, sponsored by Rep. Tom Campbell, R-Calif., would grant health care professionals a broad exemption from the antitrust laws similar to that of labor unions to bargain collectively with health plans, insurers and hospitals. The bill would allow collective bargaining by competitors, such as physicians, who are not employees of the health plan or hospital and normally prohibited from colluding and fixing prices. These bargaining units would be free from the oversight of enforcement agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission, the National Labor Relations Board and the Department of Justice and thus would be free to engage in anticompetitive behavior outlawed by antitrust laws.

"If Congressman Campbell thinks his bill will improve the competitive environment in the health care market, he is sorely mistaken," Leibenluft said.