Business Week’s Esme E. Deprez questions whether repeal of McCarran-Ferguson could hurt competition. Here are a few key excerpts:
“…some independent analysts question whether repealing McCarran-Ferguson alone would be enough to change pricing…David Hyman, a professor of law and medicine at the University of Illinois College of Law and adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute. Hyman considers it unlikely that repeal would fundamentally change the nature of the market. While it might increase competition in some markets, he says, it could actually decrease it in others, such as those where small insurers survive because they have access to larger providers’ data. Changes to the act could therefore hurt smaller companies more than larger ones, he says.“
Threatening a repeal of McCarran-Ferguson “doesn’t seem like it has been thoroughly thought through,” says Frakt. As with every aspect of the proposed reform, the question of whether to regulate insurance at the federal or state level “requires a nuanced approach.”
