Time to Bust Up Insurance Company Monopolies

A compelling op-ed ran last week from Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary under Bill Clinton – making a strong case why insurance companies should not be exempt from Anti-Trust regs as marketplace competition is (or at least should be) as American as Apple pie:

Elements of the piece are excerpted below:

“More than 90 percent of insurance markets in more than 300 metropolitan areas are ‘highly concentrated,’ as defined by the Federal Trade Commission, according to the American Medical Association. A 2008 survey by the GAO found the five largest providers of small group insurance controlled 75 percent or more of the market in 34 states, and 90 percent or more in 23 of those states, a significant increase in concentration since the G.A.O.’s 2002 survey.

Anthem’s parent is WellPoint, one of the largest publicly traded health insurers in America, which runs Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in 14 states and Unicare plans in several others. WellPoint, through Anthem, is the largest for-profit health insurer here in California, as it is in Maine, where it controls 78 percent of the market. In Missouri, WellPoint owns 68 percent of the market; in its home state, Indiana, 60 percent. With 35 million customers, WellPoint counts one out of every nine Americans as a member of one of its plans … Antitrust laws are supposed to prevent this kind of market power.”

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