The indominate will of dedicated Dentists, with more than 163,000 in the United States, achieved a goal to inject competition into the health insurance industry by creating opportunity through more choices for the consumer, our patients. Patients are at the hub of the healthcare wheel, health insurance and healthcare workers are its spokes, intimately connected to the hub, working in unison.
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| United States Capitol Washington, DC |
Healthcare professionals are under tremendous regulations both federal and state, including new rules that have been added since the inception of the Corona virus pandemic. Know that all states, have antitrust laws that disproportionately affect insurance companies due to limited and disparate enforcement by overburdened state insurance boards. 2020 was a year we will likely never forget with the barrage of challenges we faced and one of many achievements which included the passage of the Competitive Health Insurance Reform Act (H.R. 1418). Years of traveling to DC explaining to our representatives how creating a more transparent system and opening up competition and choices of health insurance for Americans would make a difference.
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| Meeting Congresswoman Grace Meng with New York Dentists and Dental students |
One federal regulation with varying affects over health insurance competition was the McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945. Oversight of health and dental insurance companies was endowed to each state insurance board and exempt from federal oversight. January 2021 President Trump signed this into law and the federal antitrust portion was repealed. Momentum to change this regulation has been building for years as it has passed twice by Congress with bipartisan support but didn’t pass the Senate. Health and dental insurance companies will now be under the auspices of the Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department authorizing them to enforce the full range of antitrust laws against anticompetitive conduct. For example, since the pandemic hit last year, fewer patients sought out care which translated to limited insurance funded encounters and fewer insurance benefits paid out for patients. Insurance companies have been collecting premium payments with dwindling payouts resulting in larger coffers of funds for these companies. A financial windfall for insurance companies, with no oversight into whether they are paying out claims as they should. States have not addressed these disparate accounting practices of collecting premium dollars but limiting payouts for health or dental care.
The is hope now that the average patient will have a more level playing field, a fair shot at receiving contracted benefits they are entitled to from insurance companies.
The Girldoc😉
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