The Bank of Big Medicine

During back-to-back congressional hearings last month, lawmakers grilled the CEOs of five major health insurers about their vertically integrated business models. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) called for breakup legislation modeled on the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act, which structurally separated commercial and investment banking.

The idea of bank-style regulation for health insurers isn’t as far off as it sounds. As Rep. Cliff Bentz (R-OR) pointed out, insurance companies take in...