Bermuda's insurance companies have been operating as a "cartel" for too many years, Senator Lt. Col David Burch charged yesterday.

And he issued a warning that legislation may be coming that will attempt to control their "scams".

"Let's be brutally honest," Sen. Burch said in the Upper House. "The insurance companies in this country have for a long time, in my view, been a cartel which dictated rates and fixed rates and decided what they were going to impose on society."

Speaking out during debate on two bills giving Government power to set medical fees and revoke licences from health insurers that fail to reimburse for those fees, Sen. Burch criticised both doctors and insurers for the long stand-off that held patients hostages for months while they battled over fees.

He said the two sides might never have reached an agreement if Government had not forced their hand with the legislation. The Government Leader in the Senate pulled few punches as he attacked the local health insurance companies for their policies on seniors and children.

"It is unconscionable on the part of the insurers to take money when people are healthy and working and then, as soon as you get older and might need medical care, they say it is Government's responsibility," Sen. Burch said. "Another scam" the insurance companies pull, he added, "is they have you list your dependents and you pay the insurance premiums for them. But let them (children) go to the hospital and Government pays. Something has to be wrong with that picture".

Government will be looking at that profitable loophole, Sen. Burch warned. "Expect, under this Government, you will see something else coming down the pipeline."

And, responding to comments from other Senators that changes to the health insurance act allowing the Minister of Finance to revoke or suspend licences of insurers if they fail to meet their insurance commitments seemed `Draconian', Sen. Burch said these measures were Draconian by necessity.

"In this company, you need a big stick," he said. " (These) insurance companies, make extraordinary profits that serve as almost their sole motive for existence. They are not going to jeopardise those profits by jeopardising their licences. They are in the business of making money and they have been very good at it."

But Sen. Burch also had advice for the other side of the long stand-off - doctors. "You have a situation in this country that no one wanted to point out or talk about," Sen. Burch said. "We have two medical organisations, the Bermuda Medical Association (BMA) and the Bermuda Medical Society (BMS) and no one can explain to me why we have two organisations.

"I hear whispering about it being a holdover from the days of segregation. The medical community need to address their own house. If you want to pretend you have integrated and are working together, then understand it is time to come to terms with your own history."

Sen. Burch said there times when the BMS and BMA do not agree and he believed that situation needless extended the fee schedule stand-off.