New
Doctors’ Unions Would Level Devastating Blow Against Consumers
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 22, 1999
CONTACT: Richard Coorsh
(202) 824-1787
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The chief operating officer and medical director
of the nation’s most prominent health insurance trade group today told a
House panel that allowing all doctors and other health care providers to
unionize, engage in collective bargaining, and to boycott would level a
"devastating blow" to consumers and to the nation’s health care system.
According to Donald A. Young, M.D., Chief Operating Officer and Medical
Director of the Health Insurance Association of America (HIAA), the
"Quality Health-Care Coalition Act of 1999" (H.R. 1304, sponsored by Rep.
Tom Campbell [R-CA]) "would truly serve to benefit the few, at the expense
of American consumers and taxpayers. It would level a devastating blow to
our nation’s health care system and the success that finally has been
achieved in limiting health care inflation."
Speaking at a House Judiciary Committee hearing about granting
antitrust waivers for physicians, Dr. Young said that H.R. 1304 has
nothing to do about quality of care. "In fact, a strong case could be made
for substantial adverse effects on patients," he noted.
Instead, Dr. Young said that H.R. 1304 would substantially raise costs.
He observed that a recently released study by HIAA indicates that H.R.
1304 could raise the nation’s health care bill by as much as $80 billion a
year, increase costs for Medicare, Medicaid, and other government health
programs by $24 billion a year, and increase private health insurance
premiums by as much as 11 percent. Using Congressional Budget Office
assumptions, Dr. Young said that these cost increases could add more than
two million Americans to the rolls of the uninsured.
Dr. Young noted that proponents claim that an antitrust waiver for
physicians is necessary to "level the playing field" between health plans
and health care providers. However, ". . .current law provides physicians
(with) legitimate procedures to discuss clinical and quality of care
issues, or other concerns they may have regarding the impact of managed
care on the quality of care," he observed.
Furthermore, Dr. Young said that antitrust laws protect consumers by
increasing their choice of doctors and preventing doctors from fixing
prices and limiting services. Both the Department of Justice and the
Federal Trade Commission oppose granting an antitrust exemption to
physicians.
HIAA is the nation’s most prominent trade association representing the
private health care system. Its 269 members provide health, long-term
care, disability, and supplemental coverage to more than 115 million
Americans.
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