Doctors Pushing For Antitrust Exemption

"When large health plans dominate a market, physicians have little choice but to accept blatantly unfair contract terms that often have important patient care implications," says Donald J. Palmisano, AMA's secretary-treasurer.

Health insurers, however, blasted the legislation.

"The American public should be concerned with legislation that would provide physicians with unprecedented authority to essentially for cartels that would reduce competition, increase costs to both public and private health care programs and force consumers to pay more for their health care," says Donald Young, president of the Health Insurance Association of America, Washington.

Karen Ignagni, president of the American Association of Health Plans, Washington, called the legislation anti-competitive and anti-consumer.

"At a time when health care costs are rising at the fastest rate since 1992, and consumers are struggling to afford the health care they need, it is irresponsible to pursue legislation that would raise their costs heigher and negatively impact the quality of health care," she says.

Ignagni says that the legislation would allow doctors to set prices while embarking on a series of other activities, including strikes, that could seriously disrupt the quality and availability of care to consumers.