The House has voted to repeal the health insurance industry’s exemption from anti-trust laws by a vote of 406 to 19. The measure would undo a 1945 law critics say has helped grant the insurance industry a captive market with no curbs on price fixing and other anti-competitive practices. During debate on the House floor, Congress member Anthony Weiner criticized Republican opponents of the bill, calling them “a wholly owned subsidiary of the insurance industry.”

Rep. Anthony Weiner: “They say that what we want is strengthen state insurance commissioners, and they’ll do the job. But when we did that in our national healthcare bill, they said, 'We’re against it.' They said they want to have competition, and when we proposed requiring competition, the Republicans are against it. They’re a wholly owned subsidiary of the insurance industry. That’s the fact.”