AMA testifies to Senate Judiciary Committee: Opposes merger of Pennsylvania’s top health insurers

The continued merger of health insurers leads to ever larger private entities whose shear mass and volume of data make them essentially regional monopolies.  The fact that they operate in a vacuum of REAL regulation regarding benefits, underwriting and pricing makes these mergers all the more worrisome.  The AMA, and others, are right to oppose this and other mergers.  Until meaningful health insurance reform can be achieved with real access for ALL these types of actions should be halted.  Congress would do well to begin to heed the mood of the American populace regarding the health insurance reform issue.  Legislators and health insurance executives who wish to retain a private health insurance sector would do well to read “the plan” and strongly consider adopting each of its points . . . jomaxx

In testimony to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee last week, the AMA stated its opposition to a proposed merger of Pennsylvania insurers Highmark and Independence Blue Cross (IBC) and warned that this kind of consolidation is a threat to health care delivery systems across the country.

“The proposed merger between Highmark and IBC highlights the alarming consolidation trend among health insurers,” AMA Board of Trustees chair Joseph Heyman, MD, said in regard to the AMA’s July 31 testimony. “The AMA has long cautioned that this trend is responsible for a growing insurance market imbalance where patients and physicians are left vulnerable to the demands of a few giant health insurers.” . . . link to the testimony given by the AMA @ http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/18815.html