Recently introduced House and Senate bills are facing opposition from some of the largest insurance groups in the United States. The bills S. 618 and H.R. 1081 are an attempt to repeal the McCarran-Ferguson Act, a law passed in 1945 to make insurance interstate commerce.
The proposed bills would essentially turn the already complex insurance industry into an even bigger headache for everyone involved. By repealing the McCarran-Ferguson Act federal antitrust lawsuits could interfere with state
insurance laws. An important fact about the Act is that it “does not grant insurers blanket immunity from federal antitrust laws, as some have suggested, and it does not shield from those laws those who engage in boycotts, intimidation, or coercion”.
A letter was signed by many of the biggest insurance groups including the American Council of Life Insurers, Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers, Financial Services Roundtable, Independent Agents & Brokers of America, National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, National Association of Professional Insurance Agents, Property Casualty Insurers Association of America and the Reinsurance Association of America.
The letter read in part “repealing McCarran-Ferguson in the name of ‘competition’ would almost certainly result in new anti-competitive regulation by the states that, ironically, will reduce competition, thus thwarting the basic purpose of the federal antitrust laws: the promotion of competition in a free market environment”.
What are your thoughts on this proposed legislation?
