Complete transcript. Excerpt below.
Insurance industry is a "cartel":
OLBERMANN: Good evening from New York.Olbermann interviews Congressman Grayson on the non-health care reform:
It is a concept so elemental to American capitalism that any child whose played monopoly can understand it, the competition necessary for free trade prohibits by necessity, abusive behavior by any one firm or a group or firms, namely fixing prices, rigging bids or otherwise colluding to dominate and control the market. That`s why this country has anti-trust laws.
But if it seems to you that the health insurance industry has been allowed to behave outside of those anti-trust laws, that`s because it has for the past 64 years.
Our fifth story on the COUNTDOWN: The insurance cartel -- it`s not a nickname, it`s a real cartel -- it has finally occurred to the Senate that it might be the right time to do something about it.
The judiciary committee today is turning its attention to McCarran- Ferguson Act which has, since 1945, allowed insurance companies to dominate the market and reap enormous profits, that`s according to today`s witnesses to the judiciary industry.
Last month, Chairman Leahy, along with several co-sponsors having introduced the Health Insurance Industry Antitrust Enforcement Act of 2009. It would repeal the antitrust exemption for the health insurance industry.
The cartel itself, today, is claiming that the antitrust exemption allows it to keep costs down -- which might be a better argument if the industry did keep costs down.
OLBERMANN: Good evening from New York.
It is a concept so elemental to American capitalism that any child whose played monopoly can understand it, the competition necessary for free trade prohibits by necessity, abusive behavior by any one firm or a group or firms, namely fixing prices, rigging bids or otherwise colluding to dominate and control the market. That`s why this country has anti-trust laws.
But if it seems to you that the health insurance industry has been allowed to behave outside of those anti-trust laws, that`s because it has for the past 64 years.
Our fifth story on the COUNTDOWN: The insurance cartel -- it`s not a nickname, it`s a real cartel -- it has finally occurred to the Senate that it might be the right time to do something about it.
The judiciary committee today is turning its attention to McCarran- Ferguson Act which has, since 1945, allowed insurance companies to dominate the market and reap enormous profits, that`s according to today`s witnesses to the judiciary industry.
Last month, Chairman Leahy, along with several co-sponsors having introduced the Health Insurance Industry Antitrust Enforcement Act of 2009. It would repeal the antitrust exemption for the health insurance industry.
The cartel itself, today, is claiming that the antitrust exemption allows it to keep costs down -- which might be a better argument if the industry did keep costs down.
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