Another call to end the antitrust exemption enjoyed by health insurers has been offered in Congress, where a measure last year couldn’t gain Senate support.

Repealed by the U.S. House, but omitted from sweeping health reform signed into law by President Barack Obama, a property-casualty group is praising the preservation of an antitrust exemption for insurance.

In a move U.S. House leaders say will promote competition in the marketplace and additional freedom for the American people, the Congressional body has voted to strip private health insurers of their 65-year-old antitrust exemption.

The U.S. Office of Management and Budget, part of the Obama Administration, is indicating its “strong support” for a bill repealing the antitrust exemption for health insurance companies.

With the drive to reform health care stuck in neutral, the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to consider a key element of its legislation later this week: the repeal of an anti-trust exemption for health and medical malpractice insurers.

The Property Casualty Insurers Association of America is wading into the national health care debate and urging Congress to preserve the McCarran-Ferguson Act and protect the medical malpractice insurance marketplace.

As the House and Senate begin work to merge their respective health reform bills into one comprehensive piece of legislation, one early victim of compromise may be a government-run health insurance program.

While a national agents’ group is praising the House for including its members in comprehensive health insurance reform, it is also voicing concerns over other provisions of the bill.

While President Barack Obama praised a $1.2 trillion comprehensive health reform bill passed by the House as “courageous” and “historic,” Republican congressmen and members of the insurance industry are faulting the bill for its numerous shortcomings, especially the public option.

The House Judiciary Committee has approved a bill that “fixes a mistake” in removing the federal antitrust exemption for health and medical malpractice insurers.