It's not that anybody thinks that removing the antitrust exemption is a substitute for the bigger health care reform bill. But this particular fix wasn't in the Senate bill, and can't be done through reconciliation. It has to go alone.

And since it has to go alone, Congressman Tom Perriello fought to keep it as simple, straightforward, and loophole-free as possible. It couldn't be simpler. (Perriello is, notwithstanding his vote on the Stupak Amendment, one of my favorite members of Congress. He's gutsy.)

From The Nation

Since 1945, health insurance companies have been allowed to collude to fix prices. The McCarran-Ferguson Act exempted them from the antitrust regulations that normally prohibit such behavior. And in a country in which more than 80 percent of markets have only one or two insurers, insurance companies just haven't bothered to compete. Insurance is the only major industry in the United States, besides Major League Baseball, where such collusion and price-fixing is allowed. Even the most basic understanding of economics makes it clear that without competition, markets won't efficiently solve economic problems. As a result, for sixty-five years the American people have overpaid for insurance; the Consumer Federation of America estimates the antitrust exemption for insurance companies is costing Americans an extra $50 billion in premiums per year. ... What's this bill makes all too clear is that whether you're a free-market-loving Republican or a progressive populist Democrat, the only principled way to vote is in favor. With no loopholes, no complications, and at two pages, the only reason to vote against it is to protect insurance company profits against fair competition. It's a clear us vs. them for populism--on either side of the political spectrum.

So I know a lot is being asked of you all this week. But there are three things I'd like to ask that you do:

(1) Send a note to your representative - regardless of party - asking them to support H.R. 4626 to require that insurers compete without collusion and price fixing.

(2) Call or email your Senators to support a public option in the reconciliation package.

(3) Sign up with us or DFA or MoveOn.org or one of the other participating organizations to make your voice heard to fix and pass the health care bill and get it on the President's desk!

It's been a long haul, but this week is looking like real progress. Let's get this done!