I testified Thursday on H.R. 1946, the “Preserving our Local Hometown Independent Pharmacies Act of 2011,” in front of the House Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet. The Act, as implied by the title, would establish an antitrust exemption for smaller pharmacies. The hearing lineup is available here. My written testimony is available here. The basic case against antitrust exemptions to allow price-fixing is pretty clear as a matter of economics — e.g. the Antitrust Modernization Commission strongly opposes such exemptions on both public choice and consumer welfare grounds. As I discuss in my testimony, that case is made stronger in the health care context.
For more on the case against antitrust exemptions, see here, here, and here.