TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

After insurance companies publicly oppose Baucus’s health care bill, Democrats are calling for their antitrust exemption to be eliminated.

Funny that removing this exemption was never a part of proposed health care reform while health insurance companies were supportive (by which I mean bought off) of the proposals, but now that they publicly oppose Baucus’s bill, their antitrust exemption is the biggest problem.

This is punishment, pure and simple. Insurance companies may deserve it for signing on to health care reform for the promised payoff (the individual mandate means a lot more money for them) in exchange for government control of the industry, but nonetheless, this isn’t government acting for the public good — this is government attempting to bully an industry into supporting the government’s policy.

This shouldn’t be accepted.