LaRouche Says Double the Anti-Trust Penalties on HMOs and Health Insurance Companies

October 15, 2009 (LPAC)—Since 1945, health insurance companies, and later the HMOs, have been exempt from anti-trust laws, but a bill now before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senate Bill 1861, would end that exemption and open up the HMOs to serious anti-trust investigations and penalties. Under Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the lead sponsor of this bill, the Judiciary Committee heard testimony from Christine Varney, the Assistant Attorney General for Anti-Trust Division, and the statements of several senior Senators about the urgency of passing this bill, to end the destructive premium increases by the insurance monopolies.

In a discussion today with associates, Lyndon LaRouche asserted on Oct. 14 that the insurance companies exemptions should end immediately. "Exempting these companies from anti-trust laws must end. The monopoly idea is immoral," LaRouche said. "We should probably double the penalties against these companies" for their monopoly looting.

Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV) was the first witness to support the bill, and the co-sponsors include some of the most senior Senators, including Charles Schumer (D-NY), Diane Feinstein (D-CA), and Russ Feingold (D-WI).

Most of the questions were directed to Varney. Feinstein and Schumer scored direct hits on the insurance companies — naming Wellpoint, the funder of the evil Dartmouth Institute and Wennberg Center, and owner of Anthem Blue Cross, as well as United Healthcare Group, which monopolizes the setting of fees to doctors, through a company it owns called Ingenix.

The only Senator to attack the very HMO idea was Feinstein, who called for health insurance providers to be "non-profit," which was changed by the infamous Nixon/Kaiser Permanente law in 1973. Schumer stated to Varney that he hopes that, should this bill pass, the DoJ would begin anti-trust proceedings against the insurance companies.

On future Department of Justice prosecution suggested by Schumer, LaRouche said, "He's right. We're sympathetic to that."

One well-placed Washington intelligence source said that one of the reasons for the strong Senate support for this bill is that the White House is behind it in order to "punish" the insurance companies for their attack on the Baucus bill through the Price Waterhouse study released earlier this week.