What is McCarran-Ferguson
This bill will likely get all sorts of media attention in the next week and month. That’s because Democrats are now thinking about repealing it.
The exemption, known as McCarran-Ferguson, cedes regulatory control of the industry, on the business side, to individual states. Since health insurers are already heavily regulated at the state level, its repeal would have a much broader impact on property and casualty insurers — a group that has also found itself in Congress’s cross-hairs recently.
Schumer isn’t the first member of his party to push for this repeal. Chairmen of the Senate and House Judiciary committees both introduced legislation already this year to eliminate the exemption or gut it substantially.
McCarran/Ferguson is something I have referenced from time to time but never mentioned by name before and that’s my oversight. Whenever I have mentioned that health insurance providers enjoy “regional monopolies” that comes about in part because of this law.