by Corey W. Roush, Gorav Jindal, Haidee L. Schwartz, J. Matthew Schmitten, and Mitchell E. Khader
Until recently, the McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1954 made the “business of insurance,” including the business of health insurance, immune from federal antitrust laws. The Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act has amended the McCarran-Ferguson Act such that health insurers will now be subject to the same federal antitrust laws as other industries; other insurers, however, will continue to have federal antitrust immunity. Repeal of the antitrust exemption subjects health insurers to increased scrutiny by federal antitrust authorities (namely the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice) as well as private parties seeking to bring federal antitrust claims, which may counsel for a re-examination of antitrust compliance policies.