Texas
Collective Bargaining Bill Helps Doctors, Hurts Consumers
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 22, 1999
CONTACT: Richard Coorsh
(202) 824-1787
The following statement was released today by Chip Kahn, President of
the Health Insurance Association of America (HIAA):
HIAA is disappointed that Texas Governor George W. Bush Jr. signed
legislation on Sunday that allows doctors in Texas to engage in collective
bargaining and price fixing.
Allowing doctors to engage in these practices will harm consumers.
Comparable legislation currently before Congress could raise consumers’
health insurance premiums by up to 11 percent and raise the nation’s
yearly health care bill by as much as $80 billion. We urge state and
federal lawmakers to recognize that providing doctors with an antitrust
exemption is blatantly anti-consumer, and could cause at least 2 million
more Americans to lose health insurance coverage.
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