House to vote on health insurers antitrust law

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi comments on the healthcare bill and job creation the day after the State of the Union speech on Capitol Hill in Washington January 28, 2010.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The House of Representatives will vote next week on a bill that would repeal the antitrust exemption for health insurers, an aide to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Tuesday.

A number of House Democrats have said repealing the antitrust exemption was a high priority after a sweeping healthcare overhaul stalled when Democrats lost their supermajority in the Senate in a Republican upset in Massachusetts last month.

The House-passed healthcare reform bill included a repeal of the antitrust exemption. The Senate bill did not.

Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami said moving ahead with a vote on the antitrust measure does not mean Democrats have decided to break up the broad healthcare reform measure and try to move it piecemeal through Congress.

Democratic leaders said on Tuesday they are still reviewing ways to move forward on the broad healthcare overhaul.

Health insurers have been exempt from federal antitrust laws, which are designed to protect consumers from price fixing and other anti-competitive acts, for about 65 years. The insurance industry has said the exemption is warranted because health insurers are regulated by states.

But a number of lawmakers and consumer groups support repeal of the exemption arguing that states often lack the resources to regulate the insurance industry effectively.

(Reporting by John Whitesides; editing by Doina Chiacu)